Here are your Manchester City evening headlines on Wednesday, September 21.
Jack Grealish agrees with Kevin De Bruyne about his unfair criticism
Jack Grealish says he agrees with Manchester City teammate Kevin De Bruyne 'a little bit' that he is unfairly targeted for his actions on and off the pitch because he is English.
Grealish's form has come under plenty of scrutiny in the year since his £100m move from Aston Villa last year, and his activities on holiday were the subject of many critical front pages over the summer. He has started this season in better form for City, although his lack of goals and assists - he scored his first goal of the season at Wolves on Saturday - has invited more predictable criticism this season.
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And De Bruyne said after that Wolves game that players of other nationalities don't get the same level of scrutiny as his English colleagues, with Grealish responding to those comments on Tuesday.
Speaking from the England camp ahead of their Nations League fixtures with Italy and Germany, Grealish was asked about the comments and immediately threw the question back to the reporters, saying: “I’ll ask you, do you [think I'm unfairly targeted]? I don’t know – I want to be friends with you all! I can obviously see where he’s coming from a little bit."
Rodri names Man City's unexpected title challengers
Rodri admits he is 'partially surprised' to see Liverpool eight points adrift of Manchester City after just seven games of the new Premier League season.
City have started well with five wins and two draws from their opening seven games, with only Arsenal boasting a better record with six wins. Liverpool — who have battled City for the title in four of the last five seasons — started slower, though, and have just nine points at this stage of the season, albeit with a game in hand.
And City midfielder Rodri says that he is a little surprised to see Liverpool drop points in four of their six games to date, although he insisted that they are not out of the title race by any stretch.
“Only partially [surprised]," he told Gazzetta dello Sport in reply to a question about Liverpool's start.
Read what Rodri had to say about Liverpool and other titles challengers here.
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