Brighton & Hove Albion vs. Aston Villa team news: Does Ollie Watkins return for Marcus Rashford?

Brighton & Hove Albion and Aston Villa have announced their first XIs for Wednesday's Premier League game at the Amex Stadium.

With a three-day gap between Sunday's FA Cup win at Preston North End and this contest, it appeared realistic to expect Unai Emery to ring the changes to his Villa starting lineup.

Instead, the Spaniard has made just the two changes to his team, most notably starting Marcus Rashford ahead of Ollie Watkins who has been nursing a knee issue.

Just one alteration comes to the backline with Pau Torres being handed his first start in 2025 in place of Tyrone Mings.

Meanwhile, John McGinn features ahead of Marco Asensio, with the Scotland international likely to start on the right and Morgan Rogers move in-field.

On a strong-looking substitutes' bench, Axel Disasi is named having missed the Preston game due to being cup-tied.

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Brighton makes five changes

Meanwhile, Fabian Hurzeler has reacted to the penalty-shootout defeat to Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup by making five alterations.

Some of the changes are enforced with Adam Webster and Georginio Rutter dealing with injuries, but Carlos Baleba, Yankuba Minteh and Danny Welbeck have also dropped down to the substitutes' bench.

Lewis Dunk, Diego Gomez, Brajan Gruda, Simon Adingra and Joao Pedro are all drafted into the starting lineup.

Brighton & Hove Albion XI: Verbruggen, Hinshelwood, Van Hecke, Dunk, Estupinan; Gomez, Ayari; Adingra, Gruda, Mitoma; Pedro

Subs: Rushworth, March, Cashin, Minteh, Welbeck, Baleba, Wieffer, O'Riley, Tasker

Aston Villa XI: Martinez; Cash, Konsa, Torres, Digne; McGinn, Tielemans, Kamara, Ramsey; Rogers; Rashford

Subs: Olsen, Disasi, Mings, Maatsen, Garcia, Asensio, Onana, Malen, Watkins