By Ewan Kingsbury

26th Oct, 2023 | 6:21am

'He makes us worse', 'Was better at Villa' - Man City fans react to Jack Grealish's display in 3-1 win over Young Boys

Even Pep Guardiola has admitted that Jack Grealish has had a slow start to the season at Man City.

But the £100million man returned to the starting XI for Wednesday’s 3-1 Champions League win at Young Boys after being a substitute for last Saturday’s 2-1 Premier League triumph over Brighton.

He was one of six changes as Guardiola rang the changes for the plastic pitch in Berne, with City producing a dominant performance to remain top of Group G with nine points from three games.

Grealish has struggled for game time since recovering from a dead leg last month, being named on the bench for the past four fixtures, and has not started a Premier League match since late August.

But he was backed by his manager, who pre-match said he did not “have a piece of doubt about Jack”.

The England international did not register his first goal of the season or add to his single assist of the campaign but nearly helped put City ahead twice in the first half.

First, he teed up Jeremy Doku in space in the area, but the Belgian fired straight at the goalkeeper and then Grealish’s curling shot on 34 minutes was dropped by Racioppi, allowing Matheus Nunes to bundle the ball towards goal before Loris Benito cleared off the goalline.

Grealish faded in the second half, and inadvertently denied City a goal when he miscontrolled the ball on to his arm before playing in Julian Alvarez whose calm finish was disallowed by VAR.

He ended up playing the full 90 minutes as Guardiola looked to ensure the wide attacker gets back into his rhythm ahead of a busy period of fixtures.

Supporters delivered mixed verdicts on the performance of a player who often splits opinions.

In other news, ‘He’s finally making the move’ – Fans react to update on ‘phenomenal player’ quitting Man City