Aston Villa had had 0 wins in their last 5 games, and facing Brighton as his first match Steven Gerrard had his work cut out.

Villa started the game on a positive note launching attack after attack but they failed to get anything out of their attacks. Brighton had successfully seen out the bright start Villa had made and started to claw their way back into the game, they had started dominating the game and the home fans were starting to grow anxious by the minute. Lamptey and Cucurella gave the Villains a lot of trouble on both wings. Brighton too however, like Villa, were wasteful in the final third and the scores were all tied up going into halftime.

Villa like the first half started the second half on the front foot but like the first half couldn’t get past debutant Steele, who made a couple of fine saves to keep Villa at bay.

It all started to change after Gerrard made his first change as Villa manager, bringing on livewire Leon Bailey in place of a tiring Danny Ings, Bailey provided the pace and legs Villa were missing throughout the first half. Ashley Young then came on for Emi Buendia in the 74th minute who had been invisible for large parts of the game. In the 84th minute Gerrard made his third and final change bringing on Alwar El-Ghazi in place of young Jacob Ramsey.

With 6 minutes to go it looked like Gerrard’s Villa would get a draw at the most from the game, but Ollie Watkins gave Gerrard’s Villa lift-off, lashing a shot into the far corner and Mings wrapped up victory, in the right place at the right time after Webster’s clearance.

Villa’s late resurgence gave Gerrard his dream start to life at Villa.