After scoring his first Premier League goal for Aston Villa, Marcus Rashford is once again full of energy.

After a painful departure from Manchester United, the English striker joined Aston Villa on loan in January and has since contributed seven goals in just six matches.

However, the forward is now a quarterfinalist in the Champions League, a semi-finalist in the FA Cup, and on a sprint finish towards the top four, so the move couldn’t have gone better for him.

After 51 minutes, Rashford scored, Simon Adingra of Brighton had a goal disallowed by VAR due to a handball by Kaoru Mitoma, Marco Asensio increased the lead on 78 minutes, and Donyell Malen completed the scoring in extra time.

Rashford last scored in the Premier League on December 1, four months ago, as Manchester United crushed Everton 4-0.

The Rashford resurgence was the main topic of conversation at the time, but things have changed since then.

After losing his trust under past Old Trafford managers Erik ten Hag and Ruben Amorim, the 27-year-old is now enjoying life with Villa manager Unai Emery.

After Villa secured their place at Wembley, the away end was bouncing all over, adding salt to Brighton’s wounds with chants of “Que Sera, Sera.” The fans also like him.

The Seagulls, meantime, were devastated when they lost to Nottingham Forest in a penalty shootout on Saturday. They are counting on finishing in the European positions to salvage their season.

Bart Verbruggen had a nervous start after spilling Ezri Konsa’s header, but he recovered in time to stop Rashford from jumping on the ball.

After latching onto Boubacar Kamara’s inch-perfect pass and spinning inside and out before hitting wide, Rashford struck back once more.

Adingra, who had been set up by Mitoma, sparked the game to life on the 25th minute with a beauty of a shot that went just wide of the far post.

Referee Stuart Attwell turned aside the penalty demands, but the Amex went wild as Mitoma fell to the ground following a slight shove from Matty Cash in the box.

Two extremely agitated managers got into a heated argument on the touchline.

Before Unai Emery complained that Brighton’s manager was out of his technical area, even though he was frequently out of his own, Fabian Hurzeler was berating fourth official Simon Hooper.

Jack Hinshelwood deftly ducked the ball out of the way of an onrushing Jacob Ramsey in the area, resulting in a VAR check, but no penalty was awarded.

The ball bounced onto Ramsey’s arm just before the half, but he was powerless to stop it after Yasin Ayari curled an incredible free kick off the post.

Brighton was furious and yelled that a penalty for handball should have been awarded.

After Martinez stopped a header from Jan Paul van Hecke, he rolled it to Morgan Rogers, who placed it on a plate for Rashford to create a beautiful finish.

Adingra slotted in from close range on minute fifty-five after a last-ditch scramble in the box gave the impression that the advantage had lasted only four minutes.

However, referee Attwell was called to the monitor after the ball struck Mitoma’s arm, and no goal was awarded, so VAR dampened Brighton’s celebration.

At 78 minutes, Rogers again provided the assist as Asensio slotted into the bottom corner to double the advantage, sending Villa into a state of bliss.

Brighton fans flocked to the closest exits as the away end sang “Is this the Way to Barcelona.”

Ten minutes into injury time, John McGinn outmuscled his man to pass the ball to Asensio, who then set up Donyell Malen for the final touch.