EMERY'S BIG BLOW as 6 tackles, 2 clearances, and 1 crucial pass: The 26-year-old 'excellent' Villa star suffered an injury today.

Aston Villa picked up an outstanding victory in Saturday’s early Premier League kickoff.

Unai Emery’s Villans hosted Brighton at Villa Park and put six past their opponents in a 6-1 thrashing.

Ollie Watkins opened the scoring on 14 minutes before doubling his tally just seven minutes later.

Pervis Estupinan then put into the back of his own net in the 26th minute for a huge 3-0 lead by the half-hour mark.

To their credit, the visitors did threaten a comeback, with Ansu Fati getting on the scoresheet in the 50th minute.

However, it proved a mere consolation as Villa put three more past Brighton, Watkins completing his hat-trick on 65 minutes.

Jacob Ramsey and Douglas Luiz added more gloss to the scoreline in the latter stages of the game.

‘Well-timed tackles’

Most of Villa’s players emerged from the fixture with considerable credit, including Matty Cash, who had a great game.

Birmingham World gave the 26-year-old an 8 out of 10 rating for his efforts on the day.

“Displayed outstanding vision to get the assist for Watkins’ goal, drilling in a cross from the right,” they wrote.

“Had the almighty task of defending against Kaoru Mitoma and stood up to the winger well, completing plenty of well-timed tackles.”

Likewise, the Birmingham Mail went with 8 out of 10 for Cash.

“Didn’t stop running down the right channel,” they wrote.

“Had a big task to keep Mitoma quiet, and he did, limiting the winger to few involvements in the penalty box.

“He made one mistake when he tried to guide the ball out instead of dealing with it under pressure from Mitoma.”

In terms of stats, Cash took 51 touches of the ball and passed 22 times – including one key pass – with an accuracy of 86.4 percent.

He also weighed in with six tackles, two clearances, one interception and one block, as per Whoscored.