Aston Villa secured a 2-1 win over Tottenham in the FA Cup on Sunday and were bolstered by the presence of new signings Marcus Rashford and Marco Asensio, who both came off the bench
Aston Villa star Morgan Rogers has claimed having Marcus Rashford in the team is “massive” for the team after he made his debut for Unai Emery’s side in their 2-1 win over Tottenham in the FA Cup.
Rogers was on the scoresheet for the fourth-round victory after Jacob Ramsey’s opener in the first minute before Mathys Tel pulled one back to ensure a nervy ending.
Villa were joined on the field by two of their new signings as Rashford and fellow loanee Marco Asensio were subbed on in the 66th minute of the game.
There had been huge anticipation of how Rashford would get on after sealing a loan move from Manchester United, having been frozen out at Old Trafford.
Villa won the race for the England international’s signature after teams like Barcelona and Borussia Dortmund and Rogers believes the 27-year-old’s presence alone gives the Villans a huge lift.
When asked about Rashford and Asensio, he said: “It pushes us along, we want to take what we can from the experienced players in the squad. It’s massive to have people like that in the building and hopefully we can just push each other. The second goal was important, we played well but we hadn’t killed the game off.”
Villa now go into the hat for the next round where they will have real hope of winning the trophy after seeing Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool exit the competition – as they reached the fifth round for the first time in a decade.
Rashford didn’t have too much to do after coming on, playing his first minutes since the middle of December after falling out with United boss Ruben Amorim – who accused him of “not giving the maximum”.
Emery fired a warning at Rashford this week, telling the England star he faced a “huge challenge” to get back to his old ways, but insisted it was an exciting one.
“My challenge with him is a huge challenge. His challenge with us is exciting. I don’t want to know the reason he is leaving from Manchester but I am very happy keeping him here and I am very happy to try to exploit and help him recover his performances, individually and collectively.
“The conversation I had with him was a very normal conversation with a player and coach, speaking about football. I only want the best football from him. I think he has huge potential to exploit.”
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