Chelsea head to the Etihad on Sunday ready to face a formidable foe. Manchester City are set to celebrate being named champions for the fifth time in the last six seasons, while they also have an opportunity to win the Champions League for the first time after handily dispatching Real Madrid during the week.
The Blues have already lost to their opponents three times this season, and know a stern task awaits regardless of who Pep Guardiola puts on the pitch such is the club's depth. Erling Haaland has taken most of the plaudits this season having equalled Chelsea's overall goal tally of 36 in fewer matches, but the current Premier League champions have handled losing the likes of Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus with ease.
Jack Grealish is one figure to have stepped up to the plate, after coming in for a great deal of criticism in his opening season at the club. Six goals and four assists is less than most will have expected from a £100million transfer fee, and he quickly became the target of opposition supporters' jokes.
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There is little denying an improved influence in 2022/23, with his five goals and 11 assists not even painting the full picture. With a game to spare, the former Villa star bettered Frank Lampard's 15-year record to become the leading English with most chances created in a single Champions League season. Chelsea's caretaker boss was very quick to point out that he still held three positions in the top five of the statistic but had plenty of praise for the 27-year-old.
Lampard was effusive, and much like with Kevin De Bruyne, it appears Grealish has a number of characteristics that Chelsea's young stars could learn from given the fees also attached to them.
He said: "I'm a huge fan of Jack Grealish, I always have been. You watch young players come through, English young players as well, with quality but also personality. He's got both of those in abundance. I think what we've seen there in the last year or two years now he's been at Manchester City, there's a lot of eyes on the price they paid for him, a lot of question marks to a degree, whether it was right or wrong.
"What he has shown in terms of how he's taken his game forward in terms of his work ethic off the ball and being part of that team structure and idea that they have and also what he does on the ball which is always improving, his awareness and his skill. He's been a real credit to himself and a credit to a team where if you don't show what needs to be done on the pitch, you won't get in there. Not all players react well to that situation and Jack has reacted brilliantly and he's obviously a top-class player."
Chelsea's season has seen players like Mykhailo Mudryk, Noni Madueke, David Datro Fofana, Marc Cucurella and others struggle to hit the ground running. They will likely have a new opportunity to thrive with the expected arrival of Mauricio Pochettino, though it is them that will need to do the bulk of the work.
In the case of Grealish, Lampard was happy to credit the Manchester City star's personal reaction to his situation. The caretaker boss refused to draw comparisons to his relationship with Jose Mourinho but outlined what helped him in that moment.
He said: "I just think a different situation. I'd been at Chelsea a couple of years before Jose got here. He certainly affected me in a positive way. More my mentality and confidence to make me more self-confident and then he created a good, pretty simple structure that really suited me. I could be a box-to-box midfield player. Those were the things that I had as a plus but with Jack, only he and Pep would know what structure and how that works. Credit to them both obviously but for this one, credit to Jack because he's the one who has reacted in such a positive way and now he looks a complete player."
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