Marcus Rashford stars on FA Cup weekend with 20-point haul to prompt wave of early transfers
MARCUS RASHFORD (£3.7m) earned more points than anyone else over the FA Cup weekend.
The England international scored a brace as Aston Villa beat Preston 3-0 at Deepdale for the 20-point return.
In addition to his goals, one coming from the penalty spot, Rashford registered four shots on target and created two big chances before he was replaced in the 81st minute.
He was far from the only Villain to take advantage of what was the most favourable fixture of the cup quarter-finals as Lucas Digne (£3m), Jacob Ramsey (£2.4m) and Ezri Konsa (£3.4m) also notched double-digit hauls.
But it’s Rashford who tops the rankings for Gameweek 29 ahead of the midweek Premier League fixtures.
Unai Emery’s side are due to face Brighton at the Amex Stadium on Wednesday night and it will be interesting to see how many points the 27-year-old on loan from Manchester United is able to add to his tally.
He is already among the most popular recruits ahead of Gameweek 30, favoured by those who rightly see no harm in early transfers if they like what they see at the weekend.
Remember, transfers can be reversed any time before the deadline if the outlook changes.
Broadly speaking, this seems like a good time to back Villa players as they are the only team set to follow up a double header in Gameweek 29 with two more double Gameweeks.
In Gameweek 30, Rashford and company will host Nottingham Forest before travelling to PSG for the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final.
In Gameweek 31, they will visit Southampton before welcoming the Ligue 1 leaders to Villa Park.
Relegation-bound Saints aside, it’s a relatively tricky run of opponents but the sheer volume of point-scoring opportunities means Emery’s troops are worthy of proper consideration.
As expected, a 20-point haul has put Rashford in the spotlight but Villa’s attacking assets have shared the points around lately.
Marco Asensio (£4.1m) has scored seven goals in nine appearances since his loan switch from PSG in January.
Ollie Watkins (£5.2m) leads the way for goals (14), assists (13) and points (251) but he had to settle for a one-pointer against Preston as he was restricted to just a few minutes off the bench having skipped England duty because of a troublesome knee.
Morgan Rogers (£3.9m) and Youri Tielemans (£4m) have been the most reliable options in terms of minutes and both rank among the top ten midfielders in the game at the time of writing.
Villa will have to produce something special to get past PSG in the Champions League but at present they are the only team still active in Europe and the FA Cup which makes them a huge point of focus.
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