Man City can repeat Jack Grealish tactic to make Manchester United statement

Whatever Jack Grealish does or doesn't do, there will always be doubters and critics.

He continues to put his head down and do what Pep Guardiola asks of him, rather than the calm and measured demands of Twitter. Until he starts scoring regularly and driving at defences whenever he gets the ball, however, he will never start to repay his £100m fee in the eyes of those outside of Manchester City.

Sunday's derby with Manchester United, then, is the latest chance Grealish has to show why he is actually doing just fine at City. And he only needs to look back at his breakthrough performance in the last Etihad derby to take inspiration.

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When the 4-1 win last season is looked back on, Kevin De Bruyne's double and Riyad Mahrez's lovely goal will be the lasting memories. What will likely be forgotten is that it was arguably Grealish's best performance of the season.

Trusted with the left-wing role after a quiet start to life at City, Grealish turned up with a performance that showed he was ready to embrace Pep Guardiola's tactics and a more conservative role for him than he was given at Aston Villa.

He was involved from the start, keeping possession on the left and finding the feet of Bernardo Silva, who twisted and turned, ran into the space Grealish has just left, and crossed for Kevin De Bruyne to open to scoring early on. It was his flick later in the first half that sent Phil Foden into the area, causing chaos in the United defence that saw De Bruyne fire home a second after Foden and Bernardo had close-range efforts blocked.

Grealish was not involved as Mahrez turned a 2-1 lead into a 4-1 win in the second half, yet his contribution to the