A summer of change off the pitch for Aston Villa was followed by one of the worst opening 45 minutes of a season in Premier League history as Unai Emery’s side collapsed at Brighton and went into half-time 4-0 down
Last season’s Europa League winners went into the new campaign having lost four of the players that started their 3-0 win over Freiburg in May. Morgan Rogers, Youri Tielemans, Lucas Digne and Ezri Konsa’s exits could also soon be followed by two more first-team stars in Ollie Watkins and Emi Martinez, who were both left out of Villa’s matchday squad at Brighton.