There are sluggish opening-day performances, and then there is Aston Villa’s 4-0 defeat to Brighton. It will go down as one of the great Premier League implosions after an almost comically disastrous first half from Unai Emery’s side.An own goal, a red card, and two goals conceded in the space of a minute: Villa smashed the self-destruct button with reckless abandon in the first period at the Amex Stadium.Brighton deserve immense credit for a slick, high-energy performance, but this was largely a mess of the away side’s own making. Here, The Athletic breaks down the main incidents from Villa’s shocking collapse.The pre-match mood music was ominous, with head coach Emery giving a bizarre interview to Sky Sports, in which he slowly responded “silence” when asked about the future of centre-forward Ollie Watkins.Watkins, who has been linked with a move away, was one of six players who started the Europa League final but were absent here. Much of the spine of that side, including Youri Tielemans and Morgan Rogers, have since secured their exits.It took just eight minutes for Villa’s new-look side to silence their own travelling supporters, but it was triggered by some of their more familiar faces.After winning a throw-in just inside their own third, it was a strange decision for left-back Ian Maatsen to hurl the ball back down his own byline to centre-back Pau Torres.Even with this awkward throw, there was little mitigation for Torres’ decision to limply play across his own box, a sloppy pass that Brighton’s Maxim De Cuyper seized upon with glee.There ended the glaring mistakes, with the move instead veering into the realm of slapstick. De Cuyper first took a nice touch to evade goalkeeper Marcos Bizot, before shooting from an acute angle. His effort crashed off the post, only to ricochet off Villa centre-back Victor Lindelof, who was lunging desperately to keep the initial shot out.The calamitous tone was set. Ten minutes later, De Cuyper doubled Brighton’s lead, and again Torres was found at the scene of the crime.