Brighton kicked off their new Premier League campaign in emphatic fashion by thrashing Europa League winners Aston Villa 4-0 at Amex Stadium. The win shot them to the top of the EPL table, ahead of Arsenal who defeated Coventry 3-0
It only took the Seagulls eight minutes to take the lead as Maxim de Cuyper forced an own goal out of Victor Lindelof before the Belgian added his name to the scoresheet 10 minutes later with an easy finish to make it 2-0.
Villa crumbled as Jack Hinshelwood then struck two goals in as many minutes to put Brighton 4-0 up, before the visitors were reduced to 10 men following a red card for Joao Gomes, who lasted only 40 minutes on a nightmare debut.
Unai Emery’s side capitulated completely after a promising start.
Emiliano Buendia almost gave the visitors the lead inside five minutes after he stole possession in the final third but missed the bottom corner by inches.
Brighton, however, capitalised on the first chance that came their way as Villa defender Pau Torres’ blind pass into his own box found De Cuyper, whose shot struck the post before going in off Lindelof.
Georginio Rutter then made a well-timed run to get behind the Villa defence and cut back for De Cuyper to turn home from six yards to double his side’s lead.
Fabian Hurzeler’s side were 3-0 up at the half-hour mark as De Cuyper’s cross from the left was knocked back across the goal by Diego Gomez for Hinshelwood to tap in.
Only a minute later, Yasin Ayari robbed Gomes of possession in the Villa box and Hinshelwood made no mistake to grab his second goal of the game.
Villa’s afternoon went from bad to worse before the eventful half came to a close as Joao Gomes, already on a yellow card, kicked out at Rutter and received a straight red following a video assistant referee (VAR) review.
Though Villa managed to keep Brighton at bay in the second half, the damage had long been done to Emery’s side.
Meanwhile, Dominik Szoboszlai scored a dramatic stoppage-time penalty as Liverpool denied Newcastle an opening game victory at St James’ Park.
Goals from Anthony Elanga and Joe Willock seemed to have given Matthias Jaissle a winning start to life as Newcastle manager, with Cody Gakpo having briefly levelled for the visitors in the second half.
However, with seconds left Victor Munoz was brought down inside the box by Lewis Hall and Szoboszlai stepped up to hammer the penalty into the roof of the net to enesure Liverpool do not start the league on a losing note.
