Jack Grealish return boosts Man City and Pep Guardiola ahead of packed fortnight

With Manchester City currently navigating their way through a packed fixture schedule, the return of Jack Grealish could not have come at a better time.

City are now three games through a run of seven games in the space of 22 days, a itinerary unusual for this stage of the season produced by the condensed Champions League schedule (the winter World Cup can take credit for that).

The run started well enough; Pep Guardiola's side pulled off a sensational 4-2 comeback win against Crystal Palace at the Etihad Stadium before steamrolling Nottingham Forest 6-0. However, 90 minutes against Aston Villa on Saturday earned them just a point, a result that saw City miss the chance to move top of the table.

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It is still early days of course, but City's inability to utterly control games like they so often did last season will have caused Guardiola some concern. Erling Haaland has made the Premier League champions look more dangerous in attack than ever before - even if he and his teammates missed a host of chances at Villa - but that offensive dynamism and directness has, at times, limited their ability to keep the ball and squeeze the life out of opponents.

That was certainly the case against Newcastle a couple of weeks ago, as it was in the first half against Crystal Palace and the second against Villa. In the latter City could and should have scored more and put the game to bed, but they didn't and their relative sloppiness on the ball offered Villa a way back in.

City's underperformance in that regard is what makes Grealish's return from injury so important. The 26-year-old has not featured since the 4-0 defeat of Bournemouth