Brighton's one goal advantage was chalked off by Jack Grealish's superb strike as Villa took a well earned point away from the south coast.

Leandro Trossard scored his third goal of the campaign to open the scoring at The Amex seven minuets before half time. The Belgian found Pepe Reina's far corner from an acute angle after receiving the ball from Neal Maupay inside Villa's box.

The winger, who joined the Seagulls from Genk in a deal worth up to £18 million has made six goal contributions this season. Villa's goalscorer Grealish now has 15, which means no other English midfielder has more goal involvements than Villa's skipper in domestic competitions since Frank Lampard in 2009-2010.

Substitute Douglas Luiz found Grealish roaming outside the box, and with precision picked out his teammate before Grealish did the rest. Taking the ball out of his stride and onto his left foot, Villa's talisman slammed the ball past Mathew Ryan with a quarter of an hour left to play.

 

Villa dubutant Reina kept the scores level after making an acrobatic save at his near post as Maupay's scissor kick heading towards goal.

Character and charisma

Dean Smith was pleased with Reina's impact. He told FourFourTwo: "He is calmness personified. You wouldn’t know he was just making his debut for a new team."

"I know he’s a World Cup winner and an experienced goalkeeper but he showed a lot of calmness on the ball.

“That character that he’s got and that charisma he’s got is rubbing off on people in the team. He’s made a good save around the post, so a telling contribution."

Super player

 

For Grealish, it was another match winning contribution. Smith couldn't speak highly enough of his captain to the club's website.

"He’s a super player, a super lad as well and that’s why it’s so pleasing that he’s doing so well this season.

"It’s his record goalscoring season and that will continue and he’ll score more. Anwar El Ghazi also ran his socks off today."

Villa lined up without a recognised striker for the third game running, but with Mbwana Samatta close to sealing a move, Smith was optimistic ahead of signing the Tanzania striker.

"We’re getting very close - I think the paperwork is just being ticked off with Samatta.

"If we can get that done, we’ll be really pleased because he’s a good player and on top of that he’s a really good character as well."

Villa will be actively pushing more deals in the weeks to come. After signing Danny Drinkwater, Pepe Reina and soon Mbwana Samatta, sporting director Jesus Pitarch will look to acquire another forward and a midfielder ahead of the deadline in two weeks time.