I’ll leave you with John Brewin’s report from Villa Park. Bye! As does John McGinn The shirt’s still heavy, don’t worry about that! This season we haven’t played that well but everything clicked today. When we had the tactics meeting this morning I thought it’d either be 6-1 to us or 6-1 to them. Thankfully it was 6-1 to us. We watched West Ham [punish Brighton on the counter-attack]. You have to respect Brighton, they’re one of the best teams in the league. They’re amazing on the ball; they’ll be fighting for top four, definitely. We played to our strengths, with Moussa and Ollie up front. They can have the ball but as long as we win it back and use it well, it doesnae really matter. The manager is really keen that, we win it back, we tried and get in behind the opposition. [On working with Unai Emery] For someone like me, who’s never experienced that level of detail – where your body shape is, your positioning, are you offside or onside – it’s amazing. He doesn’t miss a trick. He’s obsessed with football and he wants us to be as well. Sometimes you need a wee break. Thankfully I’ve got a couple of days off now! He’s transformed this place and it’s a pleasure to work under him. We were unhappy with our start to the season, more the way we played than the results. Today showed we had plenty more gears to go up. The lads will tell you that Villa Park is a demanding place to play. They’ll let you know if you’re not playing well! I think the manager has educated the supporters a bit; he’s pleaded with them to be patient and they’ve bought in the bit. There are times in games when we bore the fans to tears – but when we go, we go. Thankfully this place is becoming a fortress. Ollie Watkins talks to TNT Sports What a performance. We weren’t so good in midweek but we bounced back here against a tough team who played some great stuff. It’s a really good result. I didn’t know [Gareth Southgate] was here. I just try to perform and I want to score every game. There have been a few games this season when I should have scored and I came off disappointed. The good thing is there’s always the next game to try to put it right. [On a potential new contract] Look, what goes on off the pitch is other news. I try to let my football do the talking. My goal is to score goals and help the team at the end of the day. The players are getting a standing ovation from a rightly delirious home crowd. Villa have become such an impressive team, and indeed club. The team news is in for the 3pm games. Barry Glendenning will tell you all you need to know. Full time: Aston Villa 6-1 Brighton Aston Villa make it ten straight league wins at Villa Park with a clinical dismantling of Brighton. Ollie Watkins scored a hat-trick, with Pervis Estupinan, Jacob Ramsey and the newly prolific Douglas Luiz getting the others. Brighton had one of those days. VAR wasn’t their friend – Villa’s third goal should have been disallowed, maybe the second too – but ultimately they were well beaten. Villa were pretty magnificent. What a fine player Douglas Luiz has become. This was a pretty routine finish but he has again been superb. McGinn made the chance with a stealthy through pass to Watkins. His shot was very well saved by Steele but Douglas Luiz rolled the loose ball into the net from the edge of the area. GOAL! Aston Villa 6-1 Brighton (Douglas Luiz 90+7) And that’s Blockbusters. 90+6 min “Hi Rob,” says Nora Mulcahy. “The kit doesn’t seem to be weighing Villa down today!” 90+5 min Duran is booked for kicking the ball away. When his team are 5-1 up. I suppose it’s just instinct for most footballers. 90+1 min: Brighton substitution Carlos Baleba replaces Jack Hinshelwood. 90 min: Villa substitution Youri Tielemans replaces the quietly influential Boubacar Kamara. There will be eight minutes of added time. 89 min “How I know Villa are doing well: when I look at the league table on my phone, I don’t need to expand it to see where Villa are,” says Tony Hughes. “We. Are. Fourth!” This is the best Villa team since, when, 2009-10? 1995-96? 1992-93? 88 min Brighton don’t do things by halves. Their last five league defeats have been 5-1, 3-1, 2-1, 4-1 and 5-1. It came – of course it did – on the counter. After a couple of quick passes in transition, Watkins fed the ball to Ramsey in the inside-left channel. He used the overlapping Digne by not using him, cutting inside on the edge of the area to curl a sweet shot that went into the net off the inside of the far post. GOAL! Aston Villa 5-1 Brighton (Ramsey 85) Jacob Ramsey makes it five with a lovely goal! 84 min Mitoma is booked for dissent after being penalised for a perceived foul on Cash. 83 min Adingra cuts inside and whips a left-footed curler from 20 yards that is acrobatically fingertipped over the bar by Martinez. Good save. 79 min Lewis Dunk has been booked, presumably for dissent. Brighton have been both well beaten and hard done by, if that isn’t a contradiction. 78 min: Villa substitution Jhon Duran replaces Moussa Diaby, who went down a couple of minutes ago and has been taken off as a precaution. Diaby was excellent, again. 77 min It hit Cash’s elbow, which was close enough to his body to satisfy VAR. 77 min Brighton appeal unsuccessfully for a penalty when Mitoma’s shot hits Cash. We haven’t seen a replay yet, but VAR are happy with the decision. 76 min Diaby beats the outrushing Steele to the ball on the left edge of the area, but his cross is headed away by Webster. It feels like there are more goals in this. 75 min Brighton’s next two games are Marseille away on Thursday and Liverpool at home next Sunday. Villa host Zrinjski and then go to Wolves a week tomorrow. 74 min McGinn flattens Mitoma. The referee allows play to continue and Brighton start passing it around again. It probably wasn’t enough for a yellow card. 71 min Ansu Fati is booked for a retaliatory kick at Konsa. I say ‘kick’, he barely moved his foot. A yellow card is right. 71 min The fourth goal has knocked the hope out of Brighton. Digne has a chance to put Watkins through again but overhits his pass. 69 min Gilmour snaps an excellent early pass to Mitoma on the left side of the area. He goes outside Cash and blasts wide from a very tight angle. 68 min McGinn’s shirt will be heavy today; he’s put a helluva shift in. But his game is about a lot more than energy – he made the first and fourth goals with fine passes. It came – of course it did – on the break. Watkins gave the ball to McGinn in the centre circle, and he rumbled forward ibefore lofting a superb reverse pass to Watkins on the right side of the area. He cut inside, on his left foot, and hit a low shot that deflected off Webster and looped over Steele. The shot was on target so it’s Watkins’s goal. And his hat-trick. GOAL! Aston Villa 4-1 Brighton (Watkins 65) Just like that, the game is over and Ollie Watkins has a hat-trick! 64 min It’s all Brighton now, and a second goal would make this exceedingly interesting. 63 min “Re: your post at half-time,” says Scott Blair. “All I was intending to say was that “One-eyed Seagull” would make a good band name. Then I googled it, and it takes you to a Villains’ website. Which (spookily) is nowt to do with Aston Villa, but tells you that ‘The Seagull is the secondary antagonist of the 2019 psychological horror film The Lighthouse. It is a one-eyed bird that repeatedly harasses Ephraim Winslow during his day-to-day activities’. If I had to find that out, I don’t see why other folk should escape.” That sounds even scarier than Tattoo. 62 min: Brighton substitution Simon Adingra comes on for Solly March. 61 min: Chance for Brighton! Mitoma goes on a typically sinuous run infield and is fouled. March’s free-kick is headed back across goal by Mitoma and ricochets to Ansu Fati, whose close-range shot is desperately blocked. 59 min Brighton have been much better since half-time, with the substitute Joao Pedro energising the whole team. He’s such an impressive player. 58 min “I think John McGinn, off the field, was playing Fati onside,” says Gary Naylor. “Not sure though - who is these days?” Ah yes, the old Ruud van Nistelrooy offside.