Marcus Rashford forces Unai Emery's hand

Aston Villa’s loan star Marcus Rashford is just one of the Premier League players who have done themselves no harm with their exploits in the FA Cup this weekend

Marcus Rashford (Aston Villa)

We’re not going to bend over backwards to try and pick a player from each side because frankly not every Premier League outfit fits the bill. Aston Villa went close to joining that contingent – but after playing from the bench in their last two Premier League games, Rashford certainly qualifies.

The Manchester United loanee was left out of Unai Emery’s starting line-up for the 4-1 defeat to Crystal Palace in midweek, despite getting two match-winning assists (both for Marco Asensio) as Villa came from behind to beat Chelsea in the previous game.

And sure, you’d have expected Villa to beat Championship Cardiff – but getting another assist for Asensio before going off in the 82nd minute surely points to a burgeoning relationship they can no longer ignore.

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Eddie Nketiah (Crystal Palace)

Ideally, the forward would not have needed Jean-Philippe Mateta to get his ear damn near kicked clean off to get a sniff of a Premier League start – but when life gives you ears, make earade.

Mateta’s availability after a horrifying 25 stitches to sew up that injury is unclear, but if he does need to sit out their clash with Ipswich at the weekend, Nketiah is the obvious choice to replace him.

The one sticky subject is that Nketiah has not started a Premier League game for Palace since November, and they have been vastly improved since he dropped to the bench. After getting his first league goal of the season against Villa last time out, he would relish the chance to prove their upturn in his absence from the starting XI is mere coincidence.

Ben Chilwell (Crystal Palace)

As with Nketiah, we need to be wary that we’re talking about a 3-1 win over 10-man Millwall here – but we also have to presume that Palace did not sign Chilwell just to leave him looking vaguely bored on the sidelines. He wants to be Sta Rtilwell, not Ben Chilwell. (Does that work? No, but we stand by it regardless.)

Chilwell’s January arrival could still prove to be a real coup for Palace if he’s able to get anywhere near his previous best, and getting regular minutes under his belt is the first step towards that. So it was significant that Chilwell completed 90 minutes for the first time in 364 days on Saturday lunchtime, striking up a nice partnership with Eberechi Eze up the left in the process.

With England going through a left-back crisis that has only intensified thanks to Lewis Hall’s injury, Chilwell will be all too aware that putting together even a mildly decent run of form for Palace could attract the attention of a new Three Lions boss who already knows him well.

Evanilson (Bournemouth)

The Bournemouth striker had been out for going on two months when he appeared from the bench late on against Brighton last week, and he marked his return to the starting line-up at the weekend with a goal against Wolves.

Like with Nketiah, the difficulty for Evanilson is that Bournemouth found excellent goalscoring form during his injury – but then again, Bournemouth have recently hit a mini-run of sticky results just as they were beginning to seriously threaten the top four.

Could the return of their nominal first-choice centre-forward help them regain momentum, or have they shown their other options are more fruitful?

Rodrigo Muniz (Fulham)

Fulham’s Brazilian forward marked his first league start since December with a goal against Wolves last week, and added to that with a flicked-on assist from a set-piece for Calvin Bassey to put Fulham ahead against Manchester United on Sunday.

That has coincided with a slow run of goalscoring form for Raul Jimenez – just one in his last seven – and may well open the door for Muniz to keep his place in Marco Silva’s side.

Nico O’Reilly (Manchester City)

Again: it’s second-tier opposition we’re talking about here, and unlike the others on this list, we’re not really talking about a starting place here. Nonetheless, O’Reilly now has three goals in as many starts in the FA Cup this season as Manchester City have worked their way through opposition from League Two, League One and now the Championship.

The youngster was constantly in Pep Guardiola’s Premier League matchday squad from October to mid-February with just two brief substitute appearances, at 6-0 up against Ipswich and 4-0 up against Newcastle.

O’Reilly turns 20 in a few weeks, and so should be entering prime time for more regular football. Will he get it, or do Manchester City justifiably feel they have too much at stake to take the risk on blooding youngsters at this stage of this particular season?

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