Ollie Watkins nets hattrick as Villa buries Brighton

Ollie Watkins shines as Aston Villa rout Brighton; Everton stumble at home; Newcastle climbs up with a solid win over Burnley.

Ollie Watkins celebrates his sensational hattrick against Brighton on Saturday. Aston Villa won 6-1. (Photo credit: Sky Sports)

Ollie Watkins found the back of the net three times on Saturday in the lunchtime kickoff to help Aston Villa to a 6-1 win over Roberto Di Zerbi’s Brighton.

There are no middle grounds for the duo of Brighton and Aston Villa; they either win well or lose scandalously. This came to life again as Brighton went to Villa Park and Jason Steele was forced to retrieve the ball from his own net six odd times.

Brighton sat third on the log before the kickoff but ended the day in sixth after their heavy defeat and surrounding results went against them, but Watkins would stand tall at the end of the game round as he provided two assists to complete five goals on the day.

Pervis Estupinian scored an unfortunate own goal as forced by Moussa Diaby; Jacob Ramsey bent one home; and Douglas Luiz wrapped up scoring on the day. Ansu Fathi scored a consolation goal in between the Villa goals, but it would go down as an insignificant punt.

Everton hoped to continue their winning run, having beaten Brentford away last weekend and also dumped Aston Villa from the League Cup, but the Toffees slipped again, this time in front of their own fans, and that’s the fourth time they will fail to win at home this season.

Luton recorded their first win of the season at Goodison Park and has now jumped out of the bottom three for the first time this season with a game in hand against the Clarets on Tuesday. Tom Lockyer opened the scoring before Carlton Morris made it two.

Newcastle continued to climb on the league table with a clinical 2-0 win over Burnley at St. James’s Park. The Clarets laboured in vain yet again, with Nick Pope and the Newcastle defence standing firm against everything Burnley threw at them.

Miguel Almiron scored a beauty early on after a goal from Kieran Trippier, but the game was evenly balanced for a good period in the first half. Joelinton returned from injury just after the hour mark, but in an unfortunate incident, the Brazilian fell to the ground after four minutes on the pitch and was replaced.

Alexander Isak made it two from the spot late on, a far cry from the eight goals the Geordies rammed past Sheffield last weekend, but a gritty 2-0 home win over Burnley also tastes good as Newcastle now sits eighth on the log.