John McGinn reveals West Ham United inspiration in Aston Villa 6-1 win v Brighton
Aston Villa took inspiration from West Ham before beating Brighton 6-1, according to Villa midfielder John McGinn.
Unai Emery’s men defeated Roberto De Zerbi’s outfit in their Premier League clash at Villa Park on Saturday (30 September).
And Scotland international McGinn explained that the Hammers inspired his side in terms of their tactical approach against the Seagulls.
“We watched West Ham do it,” McGinn told TNT Sports, as quoted by the official Premier League website.
Journalist Alex Keble added: “In a 3-1 win back in August, David Moyes showed that the best way to stop Brighton is to refuse to be baited into pressing their defenders, instead blocking off passes into central midfield before snapping into challenges in the central third. From there, quick transitional attacks can be launched.”
“Villa did just that, surrounding the young central-midfield pair of Billy Gilmour and debutant Jack Hinshelwood, while leaving the centre-backs alone.”
Stunning result
Brighton have been superb under De Zerbi, with the manager helping turn the Seagulls into one of the most dangerous teams in the Premier League in recent seasons.
But they came up very, very short against Aston Villa, with striker Ollie Watkins putting the Brighton defence to the sword with a phenomenal hat-trick. Jacob Ramsey and Douglas Luiz also found the back of the net, with Pervis Estupinian scoring an own goal.
The Hammers didn’t quite make it to six goals in their meeting with Brighton at the end of August, but they did put on a real show to clinch a stunning victory away from home.
Summer signing James Ward-Prowse gave the visitors an early lead, with attackers Jarrod Bowen and Michail Antonio netting in the second half. Moyes got his tactics spot on that day, shocking all of those watching on both inside and outside of the Amex.
In other West Ham news, a Sky Sports journalist was wowed by a “classy” Hammers player in their 2-0 win against Sheffield United.