For their final game of 2024, the Albion travelled to the Midlands to take on Aston Villa in the Premier at Villa Park, the match being covered by BBC Radio Sussex Sport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last time out, the Seagulls had drawn 0-0 at home to Brentford in the Premier on the 27 December 2024 and for their visit to Villa Park the Albion made four changes to their starting line-up from the Brentford game, with Tariq Lamptey, Igor Julio, Yasin Ayari and Simon Adingra replacing Joel Veltman, Pervis Estupinan, Matt O'Riley and Kaoru Mitoma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In their previous outing, Villa had lost 0-3 at Newcastle United in the Premier on the 26 December 2024 and for Albion's visit Head Coach Unai Emery made three changes to his starting line-up from the Newcastle game, with Diego Carlos, Leon Bailey and Ollie Watkins coming in for Matty Cash, Amadou Onana and Jhon Duran (suspended).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last season, in their meetings in the Premier, the Albion suffered a heavy and unexpected 1-6 defeat at Villa Park on the 30 September 2023, with Villa's goals coming from Ollie Watkins (14m, 21m & 65m), Pervis Estupinan (26m, own goal), Jacob Ramsey (85m) and Douglas Luiz (90+7m), whilst Albion's goal was scored by Barcelona loanee Ansu Fati (50m). In the return fixture at the Amex on the 5 May 2024 the Albion ran out 1-0 winners, with Joao Pedro (87m) netting the winner. The Seagulls line-up<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Seagulls made the ideal start to the game when on 12 minutes Lewis Dunk's long ball over the top of the Villa back-line fell to the recalled Simon Adingra in the area and the Ivorian winger calmly smashed the ball past Villa keeper Emiliano Martinez for Albion's opener. 1-0. The goal inspired the Seagulls to step-up their efforts, keeper Martinez made a fine save to deflect Julio Enciso's long-range strike for a corner and Jan Paul Van Hecke headed narrowly wide from the resultant flag-kick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On 36 minutes Villa managed to level matters when Joao Pedro fouled Morgan Rogers in the box, a VAR review confirmed the foul and up-stepped Ollie Watkins to convert the penalty. Despite twelve minutes of time added on, the only chance fell to Watkins, who headed over from a corner. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Half-time 1-1.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Villa couldn't have had a better start to the second-half, as within two minutes of the re-start Watkin's excellent pass found Rogers whose low shot found the back of the Albion net to put his team ahead. 1-2.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Both teams created chances, as Watkins header was straight at Albion keeper Bart Verbruggen and at the other end Pedro fired wide when well-placed. The Seagulls deservedly equalised on 81 minutes when Pedro laid the ball off to the marauding Tariq Lamptey who fired an unstoppable shot beyond the helpless Martinez. 2-2. Both teams went for the winner and the best chance fell to Watkins, who blazed over when in a good position. Match stats: <\/p>\n\n\n\n Albion had 13 attempts at goal, with 4 on target and won 3 corners, free-kicks conceded - 14. TO SUM UP <\/strong> - A good performance by the Seagulls and a creditable point gained at a difficult venue. It was significant that the two goals for the Albion were scored by two players, Simon Adingra and Tariq Lamptey, who had a point to prove to Fabian Hurzeler. Lets hope Evan Ferguson can get back to scoring regularly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Albion line-up (4-2-3-1):- Bart VERBRUGGEN; Tariq LAMPTEY, Jan Paul VAN HECKE, Lewis DUNK (Capt), Igor JULIO; Carlos BALEBA (Jakub MODER 86), Yasin AYARI (Matt O'RILEY 69); Brajan GRUDA (Yankuba MINTEH 58), Julio ENCISO (Georginio RUTTER 58), Simon ADINGRA (Kaoru MITOMA 58); Joao PEDRO. Aston Villa line-up (4-2-3-1):- Emiliano MARTINEZ; Ezri KONSA, Diego CARLOS, Paul TORRES(Tyrone MINGS 20), Lucas DIGNE (Ian MAATSEN 83); Boubacar KAMARA (Amadou ONANA 83), Youri TIELEMANS (Ross BARKLEY 83); Leon BAILEY (Jacob RAMSEY 77), John McGINN (Capt), Morgan ROGERS; Ollie WATKINS. Referee<\/strong>: Craig Pawson (Sheffield). Yellow Cards<\/strong>: Possession: Albion - 40%. Villa - 60%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n BBC Sport Player of the Match: Tariq Lamptey (Albion).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Attendance: 41414.<\/p>\n\n\n\n NEXT GAME<\/strong>;<\/p>\n\n\n\n 4 JANUARY 2025 - ARSENAL - Home - Premier League - kick-off 17.30.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \"Live\" on Sky Sports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jack Kaye.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 3 January 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 30 DECEMBER 2024 - ASTON VILLA 2 BRIGHTON & HOVE ALBION 2 PREMIER LEAGUE - at VILLA PARK, ASTON. For their final game of 2024, the Albion travelled to the Midlands to take on Aston Villa in the Premier at Villa […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jack-kayes-football-reports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4330"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4330\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4332,"href":"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4330\/revisions\/4332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Final-score 2-2.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Villa had 20 attempts at goal, with 4 on target and won 12 corners, free-kicks conceded - 9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Subs not used: Jason STEELE (G\/K), Joel VELTMAN. Ruairi McCONVILLE, Solly MARCH.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Subs not used: Robin OLSEN (G\/K), Kosta NEDEL-JKOVIC, Emiliano BUENDIA, Jan PHILOGENE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fourth Official:<\/strong> Gavin Ward.
VAR Official: <\/strong> Stuart Attwell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Albion: 3 - Igor Julio, Carlos Baleba, Yasin Ayari.
Villa: 2 - Tyrone Mings, Morgan Rogers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n