Jack Grealish has played eight times for Manchester City this season, scoring just one goal. He's only got seven goals in total for the club since joining, plus four assists, and is nowhere near his electric form for Aston Villa that persuaded City to pay £100m for his services.
Yet Grealish admitted after his Man of the Match performance versus Copenhagen on Wednesday that he is 'close to being the Jack Grealish that I was.' Pep Guardiola is delighted with his form, and the fans are loving his improvement this season.
He may not be chipping in with the goals or assists, but Grealish is proving to be undroppable for City on current form. Guardiola has long-insisted that City are not focussing on his headline metrics of goal contributions, although an analysis of his recent form suggests they would only be looking in the wrong place if they did.
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After an under-par performance against Borussia Dortmund, Grealish received some predictable criticism from those waiting for him to replicate his Villa form, patting themselves on the back for pointing out that he's not scoring as many goals for City as he did at Villa Park.
It's true that Grealish took time to get going last season, although his record of starting key games this term shows Guardiola is finally ready to trust him in this system. It's not a coincidence that by moving Phil Foden over to the right, and with Raheem Sterling gone, Grealish is benefitting from knowing the left-wing spot is his to lose.
And for the last three games, he's shown exactly what he can do with a run of starts in the same position, coupled with a better knowledge of what Guardiola wants him to do. His goal in the opening minutes at Wolves was encouraging to see him dart to the back post, but it's his unseen involvements in six of City's next 13 goals that is far more useful.
At Molineux, he put his foot in where it could have hurt to send Bernardo into space, to feed Erling Haaland to score City's second. Then, in the Manchester derby, he started and then kept alive the move that saw City pepper United's goal and win a corner that Haaland headed over the line.
He was the one driving forward from his own half to find Kevin De Bruyne for the third, with the Belgian curling in a sensational cross to Haaland, and he laid it off to De Bruyne again later to slip in Sergio Gomez to cross for Haaland's hat-trick.
Then, against Copenhagen, Grealish was brilliant throughout on the left, teasing the defence and laying the ball off to multiple teammates for shooting chances — whether it was for Bernardo to hit the post, or for Sergio Gomez to shoot for a shot that defected off two defenders and put City 3-0 ahead.
Later in the game, he carried the ball out of trouble, towards the area, and placed the ball into the path of Riyad Mahrez, who set up Julian Alvarez for a simple finish. He won't get any headline statistics for starting moves that lead to a goal, or being the player to slip a teammate in for an assist, but it's a role just as important to City as the act of scoring the goal itself.
His contribution didn't go unnoticed against Copenhagen, with the City fans singing his name after Alvarez's goal rather than heralding the scorer or assister. Uefa's technical observer panel awarded him a deserved Player of the Match award, noting: "Grealish was constantly involved in all of City’s attacking play, dropping deep to pick up the ball and strong driving runs were always threatening the Copenhagen defence. He linked well with team mates and created numerous chances for himself and teammates."
This was a game where City scored five, Erling Haaland got two to continue his incredible Champions League record, Gomez got two assists, and Grealish got no direct goal involvements. Yet he was clearly City's best creative player and was rightly given the award.
After the game, he reflected that he's close to being at his best, which is a departure from recent interviews where Grealish has admitted he still has plenty of room for improvement. "I know I can still go up two or three levels," he said. "I know my own capabilities. But I think I'm close to being the Jack Grealish that I was."
On Wednesday, while he didn't score, only a series of great saves from Kamil Grabara denied him a goal to savour. He had six shots, of which three were on target, had 93 touches which was the highest of any attacker, made three successful dribbles, and had a 91.1 per cent pass accuracy.
This is the best form Grealish has been in since he arrived at City, and feels undroppable at present. He might not be scoring, but he's creating goals every time he plays, and maybe he needs a new metric to identify actions where a player plays an active role in starting a move that results in a goal.
It used to be De Bruyne playing the defence-splitting pass to set up an assist. Now it's Grealish — and he finally seems to be getting the recognition he deserves.
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