Aston Villa 2-2 Brighton: Points are shared at Villa Park as Seagulls strike late equaliser to deny hosts fourth straight home victory Aston Villa were held to a draw at home after Tariq Lamptey's equaliser The visitors saved a point after blowing an early first-half lead at Villa Park LISTEN NOW: It's All Kicking Off! New formation, some new faces, but the optimism has gone at Old Trafford By TOM COLLOMOSSE Published: 21:54, 30 December 2024 | Updated: 22:13, 30 December 2024 e-mail 123 shares View comments Unai Emery waved goodbye to 2024 with an extraordinary blast at Premier League officials but the Aston Villa boss should save his anger for his wasteful team. Villa should have been out of sight long before Tariq Lamptey equalised for Brighton nine minutes from time and this time Emery could blame nobody but the men in claret and blue in front of him. After Simon Adingra had given the visitors the lead, goals either side of half-time from Ollie Watkins – a penalty – and Morgan Rogers should have set Villa up for three points.
But they could not find the killer blow and Lamptey punished them. Furious that Villa’s appeal against the red card shown to Jhon Duran at Newcastle on Boxing Day was dismissed, Emery had used his programme notes to launch an attack on referees’ chiefs – specifically, their use of VAR. Emery believes VAR is being using too much to back the on-field officials rather than reach the correct decisions – though he might have changed his tune b.