'Not ready' - Roberto De Zerbi finally breaks silence on Moises Caicedo transfer after Aston Villa thrashing

The Seagulls have not kept a clean sheet all season and were wide open at times at Villa Park as Aston Villa ruthlessly exposed their weaknesses.

Ollie Watkins helped himself to a hat-trick and further goals arrived from Jacob Ramsey, Douglas Luiz and an own goal from Pervis Estupinan. The Seagulls hauled one back just after the break through Ansu Fati – his first goal since joining on loan from Barcelona – but they were way off the pace and soundly beaten by Unai Emery’s team..

Head coach Roberto De Zerbi continues to experiment with his best midfield combination and today 18-year-old Jack Hinshelwood partnered Billy Gilmour in the double pivot. Both were good on the ball but lacked the physicality, protection and dynamism that Moises Caicedo provided last term.

Caicedo was of course sold to Chelsea for £115m last month and although it was great financial business, it has weakened the team considerably. Mo Dahoud, James Milner and Carlos Baleba were all brought in to help fill the Caicedo void but Baleba, 19, requires some bedding in, Dahoud was on the bench and Milner and Pascal Gross were both injured.

Brighton, who were third before today’s match, lacked power in that area of the pitch and it was key reason why Aston Villa over-powered them.

Speaking in the press conference afterwards, De Zerbi said: “We are conceding lots but listen, we have to speak honestly. We lost Caicedo, we lost very important characteristics.

"We are playing in a different way because only Baleba can play with the same characteristics as Caicedo. Baleba is not ready yet."

The Italian added: “We are not ready to compete and to play every three days. The physical energy is not enough, in football you have to be ready to give your all and your best in the head in the mentality. We can’t lose every tackle, every duel and every second ball otherwise you lose the game in this way.”

It’s now three losses in the last four for Brighton in all-competitions and they have to recover quickly as they travel to Marseille in the Europa League this Thursday, ahead of tough matches against Liverpool, Man City and then Ajax.

De Zerbi said: “But I believe in my players because I have big confidence in the people inside of my dressing room, we are suffering a lot for this defeat but this can happen sometimes if you are not ready and you have to adapt quickly.

“We have to learn. We are suffering, it’s a very bad day but maybe one of the most important days – we want to reach this level.”