Manchester United legend Gary Neville made an eye-opening assessment of Marcus Rashford’s Premier League performance for Aston Villa against Manchester City on Tuesday evening.
Aston Villa are in pursuit of Champions League qualification and Unai Emery’s men are seventh in the Premier League table with only four matches remaining.
Unai Emery’s men are two points behind fifth-place Newcastle and three points off fourth-place Nottingham Forest, but both sides have a match in hand over Villa.
Villa were dealt a blow in their hunt for a top-five Premier League finish after Manchester City secured a sensational late win at the Etihad.
Bernardo Silva opened the scoring for City on Tuesday evening inside the opening 10 minutes before Marcus Rashford pulled one back for Villa from his penalty.
City and Villa went into half-time with a 1-1 scoreline on the board, but Pep Guardiola’s men would ultimately walk away with the bragging rights on the night.
Matheus Nunes was the difference-maker at the Etihad after he scored the winner for the defending Premier League champions in second-half stoppage time.
City are currently third in the Premier League table and Pep Guardiola’s side are one point clear of Nottingham Forest in the race for Champions League football.
Gary Neville dropped his verdict on Marcus Rashford’s Aston Villa display vs Man City at the Etihad in the Premier League match
Unai Emery made the decision to start Marcus Rashford in attack and the Manchester United player managed to beat Stefan Ortega from the spot-kick.
Rashford played 76 minutes for Aston Villa before Emery made the call to replace him with England international Ollie Watkins for the remainder of the match.
The 27-year-old United loanee left Old Trafford back in February and completed a loan move to Villa Park to revive his career away from the Red Devils.
Rashford, who is under contract with Villa until the end of the season, has now scored four times and registered six assists for Emery’s men in 17 matches.
Despite scoring his penalty at the Etihad, Rashford’s stats for Villa against City in the 2-1 Premier League defeat painted a different picture of his performance.
Gary Neville also highlighted that the England international was a “real threat” in the second half, but he claimed that Rashford should have scored “three or four” times.
“The run again from Marcus Rashford is blistering. He had to try for [the] goal,” he said on Sky Sports, as per BBC Sport.
“Rashford could have had three or four on another night. He’s been a real threat.”
Unai Emery sends a clear message after Aston Villa’s Premier League setback against Man City at the Etihad
Emery insisted that Villa must put their full focus on what is next for them after they dropped valuable Premier League points against City in the 2-1 defeat.
“We can’t waste time, we lost in the last minute of this match, but we competed well – we were close to drawing,” he told Sky Sports.
“We were trying to win the match as well with the subs, but they do the same and they score.
“Over 90 minutes, they [Man City] dominated more, but we played a good competitive match.
“Take a lot of positive things and now is a moment to be positive. I’m going to analyse the match and try get a lot of information from it.
“We can’t waste time now; we have to keep going. We want to try [to] keep the level that we’re achieving and try to be demanding in our way so we can build us stronger in everything.
“Tomorrow, rest. Thursday and Friday, positive and work hard to prepare for the game against Crystal Palace.”
Villa will face fellow Premier League side Crystal Palace in the semi-finals of the FA Cup on Saturday at Wembley, with kick-off slated for 5:15pm UK time.
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