Manchester City just about managed to scrape over the line in their Carabao Cup tie with Watford, overcoming a late scare to win 2-1.
Pep Guardiola was no doubt hoping for as quiet and uneventful a match as possible given his Manchester City side were playing just two days on from the combative and controversial draw with Arsenal.
For 85 minutes he got his wish, too, with City on cruise control as they scored two goals in the first half through Jeremy Doku and Matheus Nunes.
Watford had a couple of dangerous counters and were unlucky to see a goal disallowed for a soft foul but otherwise, the Blues were comfortable.
Nunes could have scored twice more and Savinho saw one cleared off the line and then hit the post as City looked for an elusive third goal but a defence that contained a debuting 16-year-old in Kaden Braithwaite was hardly troubled.
That was until in the 85th minute when Tom Ince curled in the ball to score with his side’s first shot on target.
City were made to pay for that slack finishing and were forced to sweat out a nervy final stretch, with all calmness going out the window as several passes were miss-placed.
They managed to hold on for the win and no doubt Doku and Nunes will earn the plaudits for their crucial goals.
In fact, Nunes was even announced as the Player of the Match by the stadium announcer but there was one player who should have earned it instead.
Jack Grealish – who earned MCN’s highest player rating – continues to impress this season and was City’s true standout against Watford.
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Jack Grealish stats vs Watford are really impressive
Grealish was back in the starting XI against Watford and put in yet another strong display, continuing his promising start to the new campaign.
The 29-year-old set up the opening goal with a well-weighted pass to Doku and was unlucky not to get on the scoresheet himself after a late effort was well saved.
His stats make a performance that was already easy on the eye even more impressive.
With 105 touches on the ball, Grealish registered 67 accurate passes with an accuracy of 86%, had the most successful dribbles in the match with six, created four chances and had 10 touches in the opponents’ box.
That’s a very influential performance from Grealish, who was at the heart of almost every City attack.
But, what makes his display even better, is the work he did without the ball. Grealish won 10 ground duels, the most in the match, recovered the ball three times and worked hard in the opposite direction when Watford countered.
In the closing seconds, as panic set in throughout the team, Grealish kept his composure and intercepted a dangerous last-ditch cross into the box and cleared the danger.
Jack Grealish looks like he’s getting back to his best
A strong showing against a Championship side wouldn’t be much to shout about in isolation but it comes off the back of a string of impressive displays from Grealish.
He might not have grabbed any goals or assists before tonight but he has been much more involved in building play and kick-starting attacks.
Grealish looks like his confidence is back and is targeting full-backs once more, digging into his bag of tricks to go past challenges and thrilling fans in the process.
Perhaps he has been given more license to express himself on the ball, as he hasn’t been this skilful since his early days at City. Perhaps since even his Aston Villa ones.
When City were camped outside Arsenal’s box for 45 minutes looking for an equaliser on Sunday, it was Grealish who took on the responsibility to finally make something happen in the closing moments.
He took a risky short corner and then drove into the box, going past a challenge and putting the ball in a dangerous area to be eventually turned home.
Grealish was the spark and it seems like he might finally have his back.
