CNN
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Jack Grealish says transferring to Manchester City has been “a lot harder” than he anticipated after he had a hand within the workforce’s essential 1-0 win towards Chelsea.
Grealish broke the British transfer record when he joined Metropolis from Aston Villa for a reported payment of £100 million ($138 million) in 2021.
He has struggled with kind since then – scoring 4 objectives and registering six assists in Premier League video games – however there was no questioning the England worldwide’s influence on Thursday.
With half-hour remaining at Stamford Bridge, Grealish got here off the bench and produced an excellent cross to seek out Riyad Mahrez, who tapped in from shut vary for the profitable objective.
“I’d been at Villa my entire life and I’d by no means needed to change, I’d at all times been used to that,” Grealish informed Sky Sports activities as he mirrored on the previous 18 months with Man Metropolis.
“I didn’t understand how laborious it’s to adapt to a different workforce and one other supervisor. After I got here right here, I’ll be sincere with you, it was a lot harder that I assumed.
“In my head I used to be pondering: I’m coming to a workforce that’s sitting prime of the league, I’m going to get so many objective and assists. Clearly it isn’t the case, it’s a lot harder.”
The win, which moved Man Metropolis 5 factors behind Premier League chief Arsenal, demonstrated the depth of supervisor Pep Guardiola’s squad.
Even when Erling Haaland – the workforce’s star striker who didn’t contact the ball for the primary 20 minutes – had a comparatively subdued night, Guardiola may flip to the likes of Grealish and Mahrez on the bench to complete off a match-winning passage of play.
“I’m a genius,” Guardiola later joked when requested in regards to the substitutions he made within the second half. It got here after a irritating 1-1 draw towards Everton on Saturday, throughout which Guardiola didn’t make any modifications till the 87th minute.
The win got here at an essential time in Man Metropolis’s season. Its subsequent two Premier League video games are towards Manchester United and Tottenham on January 14 and 19 – probably troublesome contests because the defending champion seems to be to shut the hole on a high-flying Arsenal facet.
Chelsea, in the meantime, continues to battle below supervisor Graham Potter and has now received simply one among its previous eight Premier League matches.
The most recent defeat means the Blues are tenth within the league desk with one other sport towards Man Metropolis within the FA Cup up subsequent on Sunday.
