Things seem to have stalled of late and it's easy to see why. That said, it's not going to stay like this and it's why we all love the manager. He has this ability to start a stalled car. He did it when he joined, he's done it every season since and he even did it at the start of this season.
And I expect we will soon be back to where we have been, or close. I think it's hard to get exactly back to where we were when you consider the parts of the engine we are missing. But with a little hope, we'll be firing on all cylinders and we'll start to feel a little better.
Better because it's possible tonight we drop a place and if that happens, we are going to need something against Brighton tomorrow. I'll actually say scrap that, we need something against Brighton tomorrow or some are going to be reporting that the wheels are falling off. They're not and context is really important here.
We've not had it this good in a generation. But that's also easy to forget, I get it. But we need to take a breath sometimes and remember how we got here. And I think that's going to be the message the manager is trying to get across.
It's the little things and doing them properly. Every single second on the pitch should be about focus and attention to detail. We get back to that and we'll get our mojo back or to continue where I started, we'll start to hum.
And before this descends into something else, I'm off. I fancy a burger for lunch and then maybe a little walk. Lets see where I end up.
Match facts from the BBC
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Aston Villa have won seven of their last nine Premier League games against Brighton (D1 L1) and are looking to complete the double over them for the third time after 2022-23 and 2023-24.
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Brighton have won just one of their six Premier League away games against Aston Villa (D1 L4), conceding at least twice in each of the five games they failed to win.
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Aston Villa have won just two of their last seven midweek (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday) Premier League games (D2 L3), though both of those victories were against Brighton (3-0 in April last season, 4-3 in December this season).
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Brighton have won just three of their 26 Premier League games played on a Wednesday (D11 L12), the lowest win rate on this specific day of any of the current 20 sides in the competition (11.5%).
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Aston Villa have lost their last two home Premier League games, having won eight in a row beforehand. The Villans haven’t lost three in a row since November 2020 under Dean Smith, the third game of which was against Brighton.
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Brighton haven’t won any of their last five away Premier League matches (D3 L2) since a 2-0 win over Sean Dyche’s Nottingham Forest. That win is their only one of their last seven away wins against a manager currently in the competition – the other six were against Kieran McKenna, Ruben Amorim, Ivan Juric, Vitor Pereira, Ange Postecoglou and Enzo Maresca.
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Aston Villa are looking to avoid becoming the first English top-flight team in history to lose three home games in a row having won their previous eight (or more) beforehand.
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Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins has scored more goals (9) and has more goal involvements (11) against Brighton than he does any other opponent in the Premier League. Indeed, he averages a goal or assist every 76 minutes against the Seagulls, the best rate of any player to play 600+ minutes against them.
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Morgan Rogers has been involved in four goals in his last five home games for Aston Villa in all competitions (3 goal, 1 assist), while he’s been involved in four goals in his last three against Brighton in the Premier League (1 goal, 3 assists).
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Brighton’s James Milner – who could equal or break the all-time Premier League appearance record in this match – played 100 times in the competition for Aston Villa between 2005 and 2010. He already has the record for most Premier League games played against former teams (61).