Jack Grealish offered insight into his decisive goal against Arsenal while watching it back on the pitch.
Manchester City clinched a 3-1 win over Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium in what was a huge boost to their Premier League title hopes. The two juggernauts went into half-time level as Kevin De Bruyne capitalised on Takehiro Tomiyasu’s mistake and Bukayo Saka clinically converted his penalty.
But before Erling Haaland made it three for the visitors, it was Grealish’s emphatic finish that allowed Pep Guardiola’s side to shift the momentum completely.
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Gunners defender Gabriel Magalhaes gave the ball away to Bernardo Silva, who played an incisive through ball to Haaland. The Norwegian unselfishly squared it to Ilkay Gundogan, who deftly played it into the path of Grealish.
The England star made no mistake from just inside the box and celebrated passionately in front of the away end. And he explained his goal after the match while watching the clip back pitch-side at the Emirates.
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“See Gundo [Gundogan] gets it and I just know in my head he’s going to pass it to me, I swear I just know,” Grealish told Sky Sports news
“He’s so unselfish, him and Kev [De Bruyne]. I’m trying to go back across, as it was coming, it felt like ten seconds, I was going to try and reverse it, but I know Ramsdale from our time at England.
“I actually spoke to Ramsdale inside. I said to him ‘did it take a deflection?’ and he said yeah. But listen, I’m due a bit of luck. I’ve had so many where I’ve hit the defenders so to get that tonight I’m buzzing.”
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The goal was Grealish’s third of the season, having enjoyed an exciting run of form of late. It comes after a difficult first campaign for the 27-year-old, who received criticism last season as he failed to live up to the hype of his £100million move the previous summer.
Yet the former Aston Villa man was under no illusions that his side deserved the win. Arsenal were comfortably the better side in the first half and enjoyed the majority of possession.
And it was only through loose passes at the back and City’s unrelenting mentality that the reigning Premier League champions returned to the top of the table, having played an extra game.
“If I’m being honest, I don’t think we actually played that well,” said Grealish. “I think Arsenal played a lot better than us, I thought they were the better team. I think so. They had a few chances – I don’t know if it was a penalty, I haven’t really seen it back yet.”
“If you win titles, you’ve got to come to grounds like this. Even when you’re not at your best, you’ve got to win games. That’s what me and Riyad [Mahrez] said to each other on the bench,” he added.
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