Sussex World reporter Frankie Elliott brings the latest from Roberto De Zerbi's press conference ahead of Saturday's Premier League clash at Aston Villa
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00:00 What was the general mood like? It was a disappointing result against Chelsea on Wednesday night.
00:21 In the Premier League, Brighton are doing well up into third place?
00:37 A slow start when they lost to Athens but they are flying. They are talking about a Premier League game this weekend.
00:53 I could see De Zerbi was quite tired. They go into this game still very confident that they are the favourites.
01:07 They have the opportunity if they win by three or more goals to go top of the league for a couple of hours.
01:13 It is a big opportunity. De Zerbi was adamant and confident that his side could pick up the three points and believe they had the right mentality and players to do so.
01:23 They will want to see an improvement on two of the last three performances and also the first against Bournemouth.
01:29 He will be looking for a better showing than in the last three games.
01:33 Three key players will be missing?
01:44 It is. That is the main reason Brighton have not been at their best in the last couple of weeks.
01:52 Marcel Gross has been missing since the Athens game. He picked up an injury but played the full 90.
02:03 He was spotted in training this morning.
02:07 De Zerbi was quick to rule him out for tomorrow's game but was hopeful he could play a part in Marseille next Thursday.
02:15 James Milner has not been seen for a couple of weeks now with a similar muscle injury.
02:21 He was ruled out for the Villa game by De Zerbi today and looks like he will be ruled out for Marseille as well.
02:27 Adam Milner was announced later on in the press conference.
02:33 De Zerbi is out with what he described as a small injury.
02:41 There may be a possibility for some action on Thursday against Marseille.
02:45 Those three players, the most experienced players in the Brighton team, will all be missing tomorrow.
02:51 That will have an effect on the squad as it already has in the last week or so.
02:57 He came out of the blue, didn't he? He played the last 10-12 minutes or so at Chelsea.
03:05 He did. This has been an issue throughout his career. He has never been able to stay in a long period of time playing games.
03:13 He is now on the other side of 35. Those injuries are going to become more apparent.
03:19 I would imagine it is probably more a factor of De Zerbi resting him.
03:25 It is probably an injury he could play through. I would imagine doing a 12-15 minute stint at the end of the game.
03:29 De Zerbi sees the bigger picture and sees enough in his squad to last without him for the trip to Villa Park.
03:37 That is why he described it as a small injury rather than anything major.
03:41 On the plus side, Evan Ferguson looked a bit off the pace in the first half against Bournemouth.
03:49 Then he was left out of the Chelsea squad to play Chelsea all together. He is back in, isn't he?
03:55 Yes, he is. He seems to have got unwell on the day of the Athens game last Thursday.
04:03 He turned up to the Amex Stadium 4. I imagine he was named in the initial squad but then pulled out a couple of hours before.
04:11 He then played the first 40 minutes against Bournemouth and looked still off the pace.
04:17 I think not training that week because of the illness and some of the lasting effects of that illness.
04:21 De Zerbi saw that and gave him the full week to recover. He didn't play at all in the Chelsea game.
04:31 Then he returned to training on Thursday. De Zerbi was adamant he would be included in the squad for this week.
04:39 Whether he starts or not is another question. Hopefully he has made a full recovery now and can get back to where he was pre this illness.
04:49 It is a huge boost to have him and Welbeck and possibly Anssu Fati playing in behind.
04:57 De Zerbi spoke about Fati in his press conference?
05:02 He did. There were a couple of question marks regarding his half-time substitution on Wednesday.
05:09 A lot of people saw the key miss Fati had in the first half when he probably should have scored.
05:19 A lot of people raised a couple of eyebrows. Was De Zerbi taking him off for performance or tactical reasons?
05:25 De Zerbi was keen to stress it was about managing the Barcelona wingers' minutes.
05:31 We know Fati has struggled with knee injuries. It is because of those injuries he is playing for Brighton rather than Barcelona.
05:40 It is very much a case of managing his minutes and getting him back to full fitness and sharpness.
05:48 He is not there yet. That is very clear from what we have seen on the pitch so far.
05:52 It is very much a case of he still backs him and sees him as an important part of his first team plans.
05:59 I would imagine he will start tomorrow as well. It is unlikely we will see him playing a full 90 minutes for quite some time.
06:06 Another player who perhaps struggled a bit against Chelsea was Carlos Boliva, who played in the central midfield role.
06:19 After the Chelsea game, De Zerbi said he is not really ready for the first team at the moment.
06:26 Was there any more updates on him? He is unlikely to play against Villa, judging from his comments after the Chelsea match.
06:35 He wasn't mentioned today in the press conference.
06:38 Judging from the honest appraisal he gave of Boliva's debut at Stamford Bridge, I would imagine he won't start.
06:47 It was very much a case of De Zerbi winning that game on Wednesday. It was a test of players like Boliva whether they are ready to play in more important games like the Premier League and Europa League.
07:02 As of now, people like him and Igor are probably not there yet. I can't imagine either of them will start either of these two games.
07:12 De Zerbi has made nearly 30 changes in four games, which is an awful lot of players to move around.
07:21 I don't think we will be seeing as many in the next week or so because he has a better understanding of his squad and where they are at, all the levels they can compete at due to all these changes.
07:32 The midfield role is so important to the way Brighton play and De Zerbi and Carlos play. There is clearly some talent. We saw his talents were on show but he is not quite at that level yet.
07:44 I don't imagine he will be starting at Villa Park tomorrow or even in Marseille.
07:48 Villa will be tough, especially on their home patch. Usually in the press conferences the managers are asked about the opposing manager.
07:59 Did De Zerbi get asked about Emery and what his thoughts are on Unai Emery's contribution so far to Aston Villa?
08:07 He was briefly asked. It was a classic response saying he was a top manager and had done some brilliant things in Spain and England.
08:19 It is a tough game for Brighton because they have never won at Villa Park in their history.
08:23 They have won at Villa Park but that was behind closed doors during Covid. They have never won in front of a full crowd.
08:31 That is their only win against Aston Villa in the Premier League. They have lost their last four straight games. It is a bit of a bogey site.
08:38 Villa won both games. De Zerbi was manager for the final game of the season at Villa Park.
08:45 They lost two and won there. It is a tricky game for them historically.
08:51 They are playing one of the most difficult teams to play in the Premier League right now.
08:55 Unai Emery has really set up tactically. He is tactically set as Villa side up.
09:00 One of the best in the league. Villa has been heavily backed in the transfer market in the last two or three seasons.
09:07 There is a lot of quality in there both in defence and attack.
09:11 This won't be an easy showing. On top of that it will be interesting to see how Brighton deal with playing at half-twelve.
09:17 A lot of talk from top managers about the difficulty of playing at half-twelve.
09:22 Jurgen Klopp is very adamant that it should not be used as a fixture time.
09:26 This is the first time Brighton have played at that time in 17 months.
09:30 The last time was April 2021 when they beat Tottenham 1-0 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
09:37 They have not played at that time since. They just played on Wednesday as well.
09:41 On top of it playing three times a week for the second week in a row, it is this early kick-off time which is said to be a difficult kick-off time.
09:50 There are a lot of factors going against Brighton going into this game.
09:53 They are back to slightly against the wall due to the form, amount of games they are playing and injuries.
09:58 It is a real test of their credentials and what the squad is capable of.
10:03 Thanks Frankie. A great summary of what is going on at Brighton ahead of the Villa match.
10:10 Take a look on the Sussex World website. All the comments and the pre-match build-up will be online.
10:17 Sam Morton will be our man at Villa Park this weekend. Follow all the coverage on Sussexworld.com.
10:24 Thanks again Frankie.
10:26 No worries.