Brighton and Hove Albion beat Aston Villa 4-0 at the Amex Stadium on the Premier League's opening weekend. Victor Lindelöf's own goal and a Maxim De Cuyper finish inside the first 20 minutes put the game beyond doubt before Jack Hinshelwood added two more in the space of a minute either side of the half-hour mark. Villa were reduced to ten men before the interval when João Gomes was sent off, and Brighton finished the day top of the table.
Both clubs arrived with unsettled squads. Fabian Hürzeler's Brighton were without Danny Welbeck, Jan Paul van Hecke and James Milner, all departed over the summer, while Carlos Baleba and Yankuba Minteh were absent amid transfer interest from Manchester United and Liverpool respectively. Villa's list ran longer: Ezri Konsa, Morgan Rogers, Lucas Digne and Youri Tielemans have all been sold, Emiliano Martínez is set to leave too, and with Ollie Watkins left out of the squad and Brian Madjo and Tammy Abraham injured, Unai Emery had no recognised centre-forward, pressing Emiliano Buendía into the role alongside Ross Barkley and debutant George Hemmings.
The damage was done inside half an hour. Pau Torres's underhit pass under pressure from Georginio Rutter let De Cuyper in on goal in the eighth minute, his shot cannoning in off Lindelöf for an own goal, and De Cuyper doubled the lead ten minutes later, converting from close range after Rutter had skipped past Torres to cross. Hinshelwood then struck twice inside a minute either side of the half-hour mark, heading in after Diego Gómez nodded a De Cuyper cross back across goal before pouncing after Gomes was dispossessed by Yasin Ayari on the edge of his own box.
Gomes's afternoon worsened five minutes before the break. Already booked for dissent early on, the Brazilian was shown a straight red card following a VAR review for kicking out at Rutter, leaving Villa to play the rest of the match a man light.