Man City reaction to Jack Grealish goal shows Pep Guardiola an inescapable truth

Grealish enjoys his goal

Pep Guardiola was defending Jack Grealish again before this game, talking in his pre-match press conference of the dangers of measuring players solely in goals or assists.

There is value in that view - Bernardo Silva is one that makes the team better without necessarily making the key contributions - but however much the Manchester City manager may like it to be otherwise there is no denying how important such stats are to the players themselves.

Grealish has said himself he needs more goals and assists with his new club, and if he wants to stay in the team he will have to start producing them. Having not had it easy since leaving Aston Villa, you could see how much Grealish enjoyed his goal at Peterborough and the reaction of the players - starters and substitutes - was telling as they all went over to celebrate his first goal in two-and-a-half months.

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All hope there is much more to come, but there really is nothing like a goal to boost confidence - as shown when he nearly bagged another with a chipped effort late on.

Mahrez and Foden make their mark

With City struggling to test the Peterborough goalkeeper, Riyad Mahrez took him completely out of the equation as the hour-mark approached. Mahrez bamboozled his defender and shot through his legs, to give the stopper no chance and give City a lead they arguably hadn't earned.

One supreme assist from Phil Foden later, the tie was over and City had two high-quality goals to separate themselves from their opponents in a game where they had struggled to make the gulf in class tell. That is the benefit of having world-class players, and why Foden