Manchester City return to Premier League action on Wednesday evening with a game against Brentford at the Etihad Stadium.
Pep Guardiola's side returned from a well-earned winter break to dispatch Fulham 4-1 in the FA Cup at the weekend and now have the opportunity to extend their lead at the top of the table to 12 points.
Despite City's brilliant form of late, one man who keeps coming under criticism is Jack Grealish. The £100m summer signing is understandably taking time to adapt to Guardiola's system, but some are frustrated by his lack of goals this term.
The England man started the last time City and Brentford met so, on Tuesday's City Is Ours stream via Facebook Live. Alex Brotherton asked Football London's Uzzi Majid what he thought of the City attacker.
AB: "Grealish started in the game at Brentford that was shown live on Amazon. Alan Shearer was doing punditry and it was one of those games where Grealish had done exactly what Guardiola asked him to do, which is not quite the spectacular stuff he was doing at Aston Villa.
"It’s basically staying high and wide, keeping the ball and, when he’s playing as a false nine, making those spaces. Not spectacular work but it’s what Guardiola is asking of him and Alan Shearer was quite critical, saying he’s not doing this or that.
"As a non-City fan, what’s your opinion of Grealish? Are you thinking he’s a bit of a waste of money or, as with many Guardiola signings, will he take some time to bed in?"
UM: "It’s a weird one. My personal opinion is that City didn’t need him.
"One thing that was quite intriguing [about Grealish] signing for £100m and turning 26 a month after signing… you look at the fact he [Guardiola] got rid of Ronaldinho at Barcelona, who was maybe a year or two older.
"I’m not comparing them but they are similar sorts of players, they’re quite flamboyant. It’s interesting that Pep would spend that amount of money on him.
"With regards to his performance in the Brentford game, I thought our right-back dealt with him very well. He didn’t really impress me. But maybe he’s one of those players that gets into top gear a lot later, as you’ve pointed out with some of Pep’s other signings.
"The only thing against that is Grealish had proven Premier League experience, so maybe you would have expected him to hit the ground running a lot sooner as opposed to players like Joao Cancelo.
"There’s no denying his quality. When he was at Villa he was brilliant but City were one of the last teams I expected him to go to. I always imagined him as maybe a Man United, Arsenal or Chelsea player.
"He doesn’t strike me as a Pep player, if I’m being honest, but he’s probably going to have to coach him into being a more disciplined player. At Villa, he was more of a luxury player and that term doesn’t exist in a Guardiola team - you have to be hardworking and industrious, and very technically gifted too.
"Hopefully we’ll see the real Jack Grealish sooner rather than later. Pep’s the right man to get him on track. I say he might be better suited to other teams but he wouldn’t be better coached there."
Do you think that Grealish will improve over time at City? Follow our City Is Ours writer Alex Brotherton and Football London's Uzzi Majid on Twitter to get involved in the discussion and give us your thoughts in the comments section below.
