January signings help Villa cruise past Brighton | OneFootball

Marcus Rashford netted his first league goal for Aston Villa in their convincing 3-0 victory over Brighton at the Amex Stadium.

Rashford opened the scoring just six minutes into the second half, following his brace in Villa's 3-0 FA Cup win against Preston North End on Sunday.

The hosts thought they had quickly responded when Simon Adingra bundled the ball over the line from close range, but the goal was ruled out after a handball by Kaoru Mitoma in the build-up.

The visitors made sure of the win with 12 minutes to go when Marco Asensio, on loan from Paris Saint-Germain, latched onto a clever pass from Morgan Rogers and smashed a powerful shot past Bart Verbruggen.

In the final moments of 10 minutes of added time, Villa added a third as substitute Donyell Malen drilled the ball across Verbruggen to score his first goal for the club.

Villa now sit seventh in the table with 48 points, just one behind Chelsea, who play Tottenham on Thursday, while Brighton are one point behind in eighth place.