Marcus Rashford scored his first league goal for Aston Villa against Brighton on Wednesday night
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Marcus Rashford celebrates scoring against Brighton
Marcus Rashford celebrates scoring against Brighton(Image: Simon Dael/REX/Shutterstock)
Unai Emery started Marcus Rashford ahead of Ollie Watkins against Brighton as a reward for his brace against Preston North End last Sunday.
The Manchester United loanee vindicated Emery’s decision by breaking the deadlock in the 51st minute at the Amex Stadium, finishing past Bart Verbruggen after chasing Morgan Rogers’ ball over the top.
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Rogers then assisted Marco Asensio later in the second half, as the Spaniard swept the ball into the far corner from inside the box.
Donyell Malen came off the bench to score his first goal for the club, arrowing the ball past Verbruggen from a tight angle.
After full-time, Emery was asked by Sky Sports about Rashford’s recent goalscoring exploits.
"Keep going is the message for him,” Emery said of the forward. “Playing more minutes means he's getting physically better, he's scoring more goals.
“We're playing him as a striker and trying to compete with Watkins. Maybe going forward we can play them together.
"Try to exploit his [Rashford's] qualities. He's in the best confidence moment. On Sunday we planned to play him as a striker and he scored two goals so I decided to go again and he scored.”
On the game, Emery said: “Every match we are facing is very difficult. More or less our challenge now is to try to be more consistent than we were before.
“Brighton have been very good in their matches here. The opponent was with us and we competed very well. We had enough chances to score and we were clinical.
"We weren't performing very well defensively and conceding more goals than usual. Today is a clean sheet and we are getting balance. Those three points are very important for the table. On Saturday we have Nottingham and we know how difficult that will be.
"Try to be compact defensively and respect the opponent. Win some duels. This is the only way I know.
"We will analyse the match today and prepare for Nottingham Forest. The table is very tight. They are going fanatic this year. They are feeling confident, feeling so comfortable playing each match being successful."
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