Jack Grealish says his friendship with Aaron Ramsdale helped him find the back of the net during Manchester City ’s win over Arsenal.
Grealish scored the crucial goal in the 3-1 victory over the Gunners at the Emirates Stadium which sent City top of the Premier League on goal difference. The two sides went in at half-time with the score at 1-1 after Kevin De Bruyne’s lofted finish from Takehiro Tomiyasu’s under-hit back-pass was cancelled out by Bukayo Saka ’s penalty.
The game was in the balance until the 72nd minute when Erling Haaland broke and the ball found its way to Grealish via Ilkay Gundogan’s unselfish pass. Grealish’s shot took a deflection off Tomiyasu to find the net, before Haaland made the game safe with a low finish from De Bruyne’s pass.
Grealish has spent a lot of time with Ramsdale while away with England and he revealed that relationship gave him an advantage in front of goal. “I know Gundo and I knew he was going to pass it,” he said on Amazon Prime.
“He's so unselfish and I knew he was going to pass it. Him and Kev, obviously Kev loves getting assists. As the ball was coming, obviously I'm trying to go back across the keeper.
"I was going to reverse it but then I know Rammers from England and we always have banter, so I thought he's going to think I'm going to try and reverse it.
“I was due one of them, just a deflection or something. I was going to take my top off, but I realised I was already on a yellow card so it's a good job I didn’t.”
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Grealish is enjoying a good run in the City side at the moment and has produced in the big games, having scored against Manchester United and assisted Nathan Ake’s goal in the 1-0 FA Cup win over Arsenal. The 27-year-old winger kept his cool at the Emirates to send City top of the league – but he was critical of the team's performance.
“If I’m being honest, I don’t think we actually played that well. I thought Arsenal played a lot better than us, they were the better team,” he said.
“Did they have more possession than us? 36 per cent?! God knows then. I don’t want to say much about that. That’s what I mean – I thought they were the better team. They had a few chances and stuff.
"I don’t know if it was a penalty – I’ve not seen it back – but if you win titles and stuff you’ve got to come to grounds like this and even when you’re not at your best you’ve got to win games. And that’s what me and Riyad [Mahrez] said to each other on the bench.”
City travel to Nottingham Forest this weekend while Arsenal will look to put an end to their four-game winless run in all competitions when they face Aston Villa.
