Rashford, who scored twice in Villa’s FA Cup triumph over Preston over the weekend, gave the visitors the lead early in the second half before Donyell Malen and Marco Asensio, two replacements, completed a sixth straight win across all competitions.
Referee Stuart Attwell was ordered to the pitchside monitor to write off Brighton’s equalizer after the VAR determined that Kaoru Mitoma had purposefully touched the ball during the build-up.
Throughout, Attwell and VAR were crucial, and the other important call was when Villa was denied a penalty in the first half. The VAR decided that the touch was insufficient to “reach the threshold for a foul” as Jacob Ramsey went over Jack Hinshelwood’s outstretched right leg, but Attwell remained unconvinced.
In the first half, Brighton also had a penalty claim against Mitoma denied, and Asensio’s goal was upheld by VAR following a collision between Mats Wieffer and Ollie Watkins. However, early in the move, Malen scored, and Wieffer went down again, holding his head.
“I believe the decisions they made were right, but it breaks the rhythm and it takes really, really long,” said Brighton head coach Fabian Hurzeler, who has been given four yellow cards and one red this season.
The home team had the best chance to score in the first half when Yasin Ayari’s free kick struck the post, but they were jeered off and now sit one spot below Villa, who are now in seventh position.
“I don’t know for whom the boos were,” Hurzeler remarked. “As we always strive to do, we gave it our all on the field.
