Marcus Rashford finally arrives at Aston Villa as ‘special’ moment spotted v Ipswich
Marcus Rashford’s Premier League debut for Aston Villa didn’t disappoint after the “special” impact he made against Ipswich Town.
Rashford came off the bench at half-time of Saturday’s contest at Villa Park, and after 10-man Ipswich took a shock lead, the Manchester United loanee proved crucial in the Villans’ revival to draw 1-1.
The 27-year-old had been restricted to a late cameo in Villa’s FA Cup victory over Tottenham last weekend, but with a full half under his belt, showed just why Villa signed him earlier this month.
Rashford’s key impact came in the 69th minute with the hosts 1-0 down, sending a sensational free-kick crashing back down off the crossbar for Ollie Watkins to tap home the rebound from close range.
Lee Hendrie raves at Marcus Rashford moment for Aston Villa
While Rashford didn’t quite secure a dream league debut in his new colours with a goal, his free-kick directly setting up Watkins was the next-best thing and left ex-Villa man Lee Hendrie in raptures.
On commentary for beIN SPORTS XTRA 3 (15 February, 4:29pm), Hendrie said: “How good was that? That was a special free-kick by the way, but I’ll tell you what, the finish from Ollie Watkins is superb.
“The pace that Marcus Rashford hits this off the bar, crashes. The follow-up is brilliant, it’s great striker play. I said [it’s a] big time to score, this could be massive.
“It’s that sort of distance and range that we’ve seen Marcus Rashford hit dead balls, and I’ll tell you, that was almost perfect.”
Marcus Rashford justifies the hype in Aston Villa display v Ipswich
Having been left on the bench despite calls for him to start, Rashford’s second-half display showed more than enough signs to suggest the outcasted England forward does have it in him to get back to his best.
Playing off the left, Rashford fired off four shots and created a further four chances, producing an impressive 0.78 expected assists for the latter with 0.92 combined expected goals and assists [FotMob].
Though only one of his four attempts was on-target and he saw another blocked, Rashford’s 20-yard free-kick striking the woodwork proved key to Watkins’ equaliser, having eight touches in the box.
Completing 86 per cent of his passes [SofaScore] and 100 per cent of those he attempted to hit long [FotMob], Rashford also swung in seven corners – most of which came as Villa upped the ante late on.
Having been bombed out of Old Trafford with a lack of work-rate cited, Rashford wasn’t shy of helping out defensively either, attempting three tackles and recovering possession on two occasions.
One of those tackles drew a response from the crowd as he slid in to prevent Jens Cajuste from counter-attacking, with that being one of the 10 ground duels he attempted at a 70 per cent success rate.
All in all, Rashford’s performance was one Unai Emery will be massively encouraged by.