Jack Grealish provided the assist for Riyad Mahrez’s winner for Manchester City against Chelsea.
Jack Grealish has admitted both he and Riyad Mahrez were surprised that Kepa Arrizabalaga didn’t come to collect the ball for Manchester City’s winner goal against Chelsea. Graham Potter’s squad had already been ravaged by injuries in the build-up to the game against City and were dealt another blow when Mason Mount was ruled out before kick-off.
Chelsea’s luck went from bad to worse early in the first half too when Raheem Sterling and Christian Pulisic were forced off with separate injuries. Despite Potter’s options being limited, Chelsea still put up a strong fight against the reigning Premier League champions.
They looked favourites to break the deadlock in the early stages of the second half, but City soon began taking control when Grealish was brought on. And the England international helped City score the game’s only goal with a brilliant low-driven cross to the backpost for Mahrez to tap in from close range.
The goal saw Kepa and Marc Cucurella both take on heavy criticism for failing to stop City from scoring. Kepa appeared to let the ball roll in front of him when he would have potentially been able to reach it.
And Cucurella was ultimately guilty of letting Mahrez run in behind him to score into the empty net. It even caught Grealish by surprise that his pass led to a goal as he believed Kepa was going to stop it.
The City winger was in brilliant form on Sky Sports after the match, giving his honest take on the match as a whole and even divulging a conversation he had with Erling Haaland after the goal. “I was speaking to Riyad – and he thought the goalkeeper was going to get it at one point. And so did I,” Grealish said when reviewing the footage.
“When I crossed it I was thinking Erling [Haaland] has got to be somewhere – I’m just hitting the space. And I asked him ‘where was you’ and he said he pulled back.”
Grealish spoke further about his time at City and opened up on how difficult he’s found it to replicate the kind of form he enjoyed at Aston Villa. “It’s so much different to what I was used to at Aston Villa. When I played for Dean Smith he’d say go and find the weak link in the defence and play there,” he added.
“I came to City and I’ve never had to change so I didn’t realise how hard it is to adapt to another team and manager. It was so much more difficult than I thought. I was thinking I’m going to get so many goals and assists and it hasn’t been the case. Teams like to sit in against us.”
Source: express.co.uk
