By Aston Villa FC

At A Glance

Aston Villa return to action after the international break on Saturday, taking on Brighton at Villa Park.

A 3-0 win against Arsenal preceded the break, ending Villa’s two game losing run and moving the team up to sixth in the Premier League.

Dean Smith’s team have lost their last two home games and will be looking to put that right against the Seagulls.

Aston Villa vs Brighton

Brighton come into the match in 16th place, having picked up six points from their opening eight games.

Graham Potter’s side are winless in their last six top-flight fixtures, but their sole win this season came on their travels against Newcastle (3-0).

Last season, Matt Targett beat Brighton with a last-minute winner at Villa Park before Jack Grealish snatched a point at the Amex Stadium.

Standout Stats

Arsenal v Aston Villa

Aston Villa are unbeaten in their last eight league meetings with Brighton (W4 D4), since a 0-1 defeat in December 1980.

Brighton have never won away against Aston Villa in all competitions, drawing three and losing nine of their 12 games. Indeed, the Seagulls have lost all five of their visits to Villa Park in the top-flight.

Aston Villa have won five of their seven Premier League games so far this season (L2), netting 18 goals in the process. It took the Villans 13 games to score as many Premier League goals last season, while they picked up their fifth win in their 19th game in 2019-20.

Aston Villa have won three Premier League games by a margin of 3+ goals this season, as many as they had in their previous four campaigns in the competition combined (1 in 2013-14, 1 in 2014-15, 0 in 2015-16, 1 in 2019-20). They last won more by such a margin in a single top-flight season back in 2007-08 (6).

Brighton are winless in their last six Premier League matches (D3 L3). However, 12 of the Seagulls’ last 15 Premier League points have been won in away games (80%).

Since their promotion to the Premier League in 2017, Brighton have had more goalless draws than any other side in the competition (12). Meanwhile, in Premier League history Aston Villa have had more games finish 0-0 than any other side (100).

The Last Meeting

Villa fought back from a goal down to take a point on the South Coast when the two teams met last.

Leandro Trossard put the hosts in front with a powerful drive after 38 minutes.

And after Brighton spurned further chances, Jack Grealish thundered a left footed shot past Mat Ryan to earn a valuable point.

Team News

Squad train during the international break

On Thursday morning, Dean Smith said Tom Heaton is back into full training with the first team squad after getting minutes in two games recently.

Wesley is progressing well, while Fred Guilbert and Bjorn Engels are dealing with muscular injuries. Kortney Hause was set to return to training on Thursday. 

For Brighton, Lewis Dunk returns after a three-game suspension. Leandro Trossard (groin), Solly March (ankle) and Aaron Connolly (hamstring) are all doubts for the game. Meanwhile, Christian Walton, Alireza Jahanbakhsh and Davy Propper could feature at Villa Park after returning to training. 

The Boss

"I’m expecting a really tough game because I’ve watched a lot of their games, looked at a lot of their stats and they’re in the top half for a lot of those stats. They haven’t got the wins they would have expected with those stats. They’re a modern-day football team in terms of playing through the thirds. They have some very good players and we’ll certainly have to be at our best. We need to go and get a result at Villa Park because our last two results there haven’t been good. We’re coming up against a really good footballing team."

Dean Smith