Brighton 4-0 Aston Villa: Seagulls thrash Europa League champions to kickstart season | OneFootball

Jack Buchanan, Chief EFL Editor

Brighton ran out 4-0 winners against Aston Villa this afternoon in something of a shock result, or at least scoreline, at The American Express Stadium.

A defensive mix-up in the eighth minute saw Maxime De Cuyper force an own goal from Victor Lindelöf to open the scoring; the Swedish defender looked to clear the ball off the line but instead turned it into his own net. De Cuyper then added a goal of his own 10 minutes later, latching on to a superb ball across the face of goal from Georgino Rutter to smash home from close range and double the Seagulls’ lead.

A quick-fire brace from Jack Hinshelwood followed; the first saw him nod the ball home from close range after Diego Gómez headed it back across goal, before adding a second just one minute later when he nicked the ball from João Gomes before firing past Marco Bizot from inside the penalty area. It went from bad to worse for Gomes, who was shown a red card after kicking out at Rutter.

Brighton’s attention will now turn to the second leg of their Europa Conference League qualifier with Tromsø on Thursday night.