Steven Gerrard said his Aston Villa side allowed Albion possession “in certain areas”.

And he felt their eye for a counter-attack ultimately paid off.

Villa’s new boss wants his team to be a possession-based outfit eventually.

But he was happy enough to see Graham Potter’s team have 63% of the ball and run into cul-de-sacs.

Gerrard said: "Graham is an outstanding coach.

"He has a lot of support around him. He has implemented a style that are a real possession based team.

"It was important that we didn't chase lost causes otherwise you are made to pay for that.

“We wanted to own the middle of the park with or shape and structure.

"We wanted to block the middle of the pitch and when our moments came we wanted to semi-counter and full counter and wanted to hurt the opposition.

BRIGHTON PLAYER RATINGS IN DEFEAT AT ASTON VILLA

"It took until the last ten or 15 for us to look like a real threat but we have a lot of attacking players in squad who can run and who are dangerous.

"We allowed them to have the ball in certain areas of the pitch and when Brighton tried to win it from us, we made them pay."