Marcus Rashford netted his first Premier League goal for Aston Villa as they beat fellow UEFA Champions League hopefuls Brighton & Hove Albion 3-0 at Amex Stadium.
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Manchester United loanee Rashford opened the scoring from a brilliant counter-attack early in the second half.
Marco Asensio added a second goal with a cool finish in the 78th minute and fellow substitute Donyell Malen rounded off an incident-packed game deep in stoppage time, with his first Villa strike since joining the club in January.
Both teams had penalty appeals waved away in a first half in which Yasin Ayari hit a post, while Simon Adingra had a goal disallowed for Brighton, who drop to eighth.
Villa leapfrog Brighton into seventh place with this victory and remain three points behind Manchester City, who are now fourth. The gap to fifth – which could be enough to guarantee Champions League qualification – is just two points for Unai Emery's side.
| Position Pos | Club | Played Pl | GD | Points Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 |
Man City
MCI
|
30 | +17 | 51 |
| 5 |
Newcastle
NEW
|
29 | +10 | 50 |
| 6 |
Chelsea
CHE
|
29 | +16 | 49 |
| 7 |
Aston Villa
AVL
|
30 | -1 | 48 |
| 8 |
Brighton
BHA
|
30 | +3 | 47 |
| 9 |
Fulham
FUL
|
30 | +4 | 45 |
| 10 |
Bournemouth
BOU
|
30 | +11 | 44 |
How the match unfolded
Rashford skewed wide after expertly taking down Boubacar Kamara's long ball and Matty Cash arrowed a fine half-volley past the left post in a bright Villa start.
Adingra whistled one wide from the edge of the box at the other end, while Kaoru Mitoma had a penalty shout overlooked following a tussle with Cash.
Stuart Attwell also kept his whistle out of his mouth when Jacob Ramsey tumbled from Jack Hinshelwood's challenge, with VAR confirming the on-field decision of no penalty.
Ayari struck a post with an excellent 20-yard free-kick shortly before half-time, with calls for handball against Ramsey from the rebound going unheard.
Villa made the breakthrough after 51 minutes when Rashford raced on to Rogers' long punt and finished beyond Bart Verbruggen.
Brighton thought they had a swift response through Adingra, but Attwell disallowed the goal for handball against Mitoma after a VAR review.
The hosts’ misery was compounded when Rogers broke free down the right-hand side and sent it into Asensio, who side-footed home neatly, with the goal allowed to stand after a VAR check for a possible foul in the build-up.
And the visitors added further gloss late on – Malen grabbing his first Villa goal with an arrowed finish.
Hurzeler frustrated as big calls escape Brighton
In a game of two extremely technical sides, it is perhaps no surprise that it was decided on the finest of margins.
Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler will be feeling that, on this occasion, those margins just simply did not favour his side – who for the most part you could argue were the better team.
On another day, Mitoma may have earned a penalty for a nudge from Cash when brilliantly taking Lewis Dunk's pinpoint long ball in his stride.
Hurzeler might also have felt aggrieved that handball was not awarded against Ramsey but, again, it looked a fair call given the midfielder's arm was by his side as the ball rattled back off a post.
The Brighton head coach's mood would hardly have been improved by the static nature of his side's defending for Rashford's goal, and when Adingra's effort was chalked off, then Hurzeler might have been thinking he had wronged the footballing gods.
But, whatever the context, this will feel like a match that slipped through Brighton's grasp, particularly with the race for Champions League football so mouth-wateringly congested.
Rashford revival in full swing as Villa eye Europe once more
First scorer Rashford has looked like a player rejuvenated during his loan spell at Villa and he scored his first goals for the club in their 3-0 win at Preston North End in the FA Cup quarter-final on Sunday.
And his first strike in the Premier League for Villa was right out of his textbook.
It actually came from a Brighton corner, with Emiliano Martinez swiftly finding Rogers, whose ball was pretty central and allowed Verbruggen little time to set as Rashford's pace caused chaos.
Emery was a mightily relieved man shortly after when Martinez made a complete hash of collecting the ball from Mitoma's knockdown, parrying it straight into the path of Adingra. The relief was also palpable for the goalkeeper when Mitoma was deemed to have handled the ball.
While Emery would not have enjoyed that moment of indecision, he will have very much enjoyed Rashford's contribution to the cause. On another night, the forward would have scored more goals; his touch for his early opportunity was exquisite, the follow-up finish less so.
But if Emery can keep Rashford in this sort of lively form then he has an absolutely superb asset in the quest to ensure Champions League football via their Premier League placing – while they can, of course, still achieve that by winning Europe's elite competition this season.
Club reports
Brighton report | Villa report
What the managers said
Fabian Hurzeler: "We lost 3-0 so we have to deal with it. In the end, it's about winning games and we weren't able to do that today.
"We didn't do the things we could influence. The first goal was from the corner. Small margins make the difference."
Unai Emery: "Good evening. We competed very well. We are trying to concede fewer goals because our numbers haven't been very good this year. We achieved a clean sheet and today is fantastic for how we competed against a very good team.
"We had the chances to score in 90 minutes and were clinical. This is very important for us to try to reduce the distances in the table."
Next PL fixtures
Key facts
Aston Villa have won back-to-back Premier League away games for the first time since August. They had won just one of their previous nine matches on the road before this run (D1 L7).
Marco Asensio has scored eight goals in his last seven appearances for Aston Villa in all competitions. Since his debut for Villa he’s scored more goals than any other Premier League player (eight in all competitions).
Marcus Rashford scored his first Premier League goal for Aston Villa. It was his fifth goal in the competition against Brighton; he has only netted more against Leicester (eight), Arsenal (six) and Tottenham Hotspur (six).
Aston Villa’s Morgan Rogers provided two assists in a game for the second time this season, also doing so against Wolves in September. These assists took him to over 20 goal involvements in all competitions this season (12 goals and nine assists).
