On the eve of the season, John McGinn encouraged Aston Villa supporters to “stay calm and believe”.The message felt pointed. Calmness was what was needed but it was completely lacking on the opening day. Understandably so. The bliss of Istanbul, where players and supporters danced into the early hours after securing the Europa League in May, has been broken up belligerently by a summer of significant change.McGinn, who had called this season a “new Villa”, represented a point of stability as change swirled around him. The poise McGinn wanted to bring evaporated rapidly inside a little over half an hour of the new Premier League season. A calamitous start left them 4-0 down at Brighton & Hove Albion, soon to be reduced to 10 men.McGinn had been booked. Unai Emery was scrapping with Fabian Huerzeler and his staff. Joao Gomes, the summer signing, was flying furiously into challenges. Predictably, he was sent off for violent conduct. Villa became only the second team in Premier League history to concede four goals, receive a red card and score an own goal in the first half of a match.Emery and McGinn aside, this is a deeply unstable Villa squad right now. And that instability is behind an opening day to forget.In many ways, the Europa League final was the crescendo and also the end for the first Emery era. The mountain had been climbed. There might have been no more petrol in the tank had Villa continued to maintain the same core. Villa knew they had to rejuvenate this summer yet, as Emery admitted on Friday, not to this extent. On Friday, The Athletic asked Emery how much change is too much. In a retort that lasted nearly two minutes, the Spaniard said the word “worried” 15 times. In fairness, he was using it to say he is always concerned and that it is natural as a manager to feel that way.Undeniably, however, “worried” is the mood.All but one member of the spine of the team who started against Freiburg in May was absent. Pau Torres had a torrid afternoon, though, giving the ball to Maxim De Cuyper for Brighton’s first goal and, in essence, ending the match as a contest.Elsewhere, Emiliano Martinez has spent a second successive summer asking to leave. When his wish was granted, the move to Juventus fell away, with Villa pre-emptively having sought his replacement in Zion Suzuki. It has left Martinez training on his own, partly because he returned to training only last Tuesday and partly because Villa are helping him find another club. Leon Bailey, another long-standing player, is training on his own, too.Emi Martinez played the World Cup final but is now training alone (Image Photo Agency/Getty Images)In defence, Ezri Konsa said his farewells to team-mates on Wednesday morning before joining Arsenal. In midfield, Youri Tielemans went to Manchester United. Amadou Onana is out with an anterior cruciate ligament injury. Gomes, Tielemans’ replacement, had recovered from a calf issue ahead of schedule and as a consequence of Villa’s lack of numbers, came straight into the starting XI. In the No 10 role, Morgan Rogers was the anticipated exit and Villa fetched £117million from Chelsea. The final player in this thread is striker Ollie Watkins, who, in theory, should be available. Last week, however, Watkins made clear he wanted to leave and join Al Hilal. It was a response to Villa rejecting four offers from the Saudi Pro League side. Emery called the situation a “real issue”.Villa have offered Watkins a lucrative contract extension until 2030 and believe it is a very good deal for someone his age. But presently, Watkins’ mind is set on Saudi and he was absent from the squad for the Brighton game. The 30-year-old had not trained with the squad in recent days.“Silence,” said Emery before the match when asked about Watkins. When The Athletic asked post-match if he felt let down by Watkins, having avoided clarifying whether the player refused to play, Emery asserted the question was “for him and his agent”. In Watkins’ place, with Brian Madjo and Tammy Abraham injured, was Ross Barkley, the midfielder moonlighting as a No 9.