Marcus Rashford netted his first Premier League goal for Aston Villa as they beat fellow Champions League hopefuls Brighton 3-0 at the Amex Stadium.

Manchester United loanee Rashford opened the scoring from a brilliant counter-attack early in the second half, and Marco Asensio added a second with a cool finish 12 minutes from time.

Fellow substitute Donyell Malen settled an incident-packed game deep into stoppage time as Villa climbed into seventh, leapfrogging a Brighton side who are now eighth.

Rashford skewed woefully wide, and Matty Cash fizzed a half-volley past the post as Villa started well, while Simon Adingra whistled one past the upright in response for Brighton.

Kaoru Mitoma saw a penalty shout waved away following a tussle with Cash, while Jacob Ramsey tumbled under a foul from Adam Hinshelwood but also saw his claims go unheard.

Yasin Ayari struck the post with an excellent 20-yard free-kick shortly before half-time, but Rashford made the breakthrough after 51 minutes when he raced onto Morgan Rogers' long punt and struck his shot into the ground and past Bart Verbruggen.

Brighton thought they had a swift response through Adingra, but Stuart Attwell disallowed the goal for handball against Mitoma after checking the pitch-side monitor, and their misery was compounded when Cash laid into the penalty area for Asensio, who side-footed neatly into the bottom-right corner.

And Villa added gloss deep into injury time with Malen scoring his first Villa goal with an arrowed strike into the bottom-left corner.

Data Debrief: Away-day joy returning for Villa

Despite the comfortable nature of the scoreline, Villa rode their luck at times, but they have now won back-to-back Premier League away games for the first time since August.

Prior to that, Unai Emery's men had won just one of their previous nine on the road (drawn one, lost seven), while this represents their biggest away win since a 5-0 thumping of Sheffield United in February 2024.

Rashford's goal represented his fifth in the competition against Brighton. He has only netted more against Leicester City (eight), Arsenal (six), and Tottenham (six).

For Asensio, he now has eight goals in all competitions for Villa. Since his debut for the Villans, he has scored more goals than any other Premier League player (eight in all competitions).