City star Jack Grealish claims the Hatters are a lot better than people think

Manchester City attacker Jack Grealish believes Luton are a far better side than most people think despite Town falling to a third successive defeat courtesy of his winning goal during yesterday’s 2-1 Premier League victory at Kenilworth Road.

The England star enjoyed a far more enjoyable outing than his first visit to Bedfordshire in October 2016, having been part of an Aston Villa team beaten 3-1 in a Carabao Cup tie back then, as his second half strike earned the visitors all three points.

Prior to that, Grealish, recalled after missing the 1-0 defeat to Aston Villa on Thursday due to suspension, had seen his side fall behind to virtually the last kick of the first half, Elijah Adebayo heading home Andros Townsend’s wonderful right-wing cross. With Luton then having 45 minutes to try and hold on and make it five games without a win for the first time in Pep Guardiola’s managerial career, they made it through to the hour mark, before Bernardo Silva restored parity when arrowing a left footer into the bottom corner.

Grealish, who was serenaded by chants about not being quite as good as former Luton forward Harry Cornick during his 90 minutes on the pitch, then took advantage of some poor defending by the hosts to add a quickfire second as the champions got back to winning ways.

However, he was left in no doubt just how tough a fixture it had been for the champions, saying: “We knew it was going to be one of those days and fair play to them they're actually a really good team, better than a lot of people give them credit for. Coming here, at this ground, it’s difficult, but we got the job done.

"We needed a lot of patience, we dominated the first half. I can’t remember them having too many chances and then they got the goal at the end of the first half, which was a blow for us. We came out in the second half and we spoke between each other, to move the ball better and not rush things. That’s what we did.

“We have the best manager in the world and world class players. They’ve dealt with a lot in their careers, so we have a lot of experienced players. A lot of people like to talk about City and go on like it's a big crisis, but in reality we've played very good teams.

"Spurs, who have been unbelievable, Liverpool who are top, Chelsea and Villa, who have got one of the best home records in Europe. We knew we had to keep calm today and we're buzzing to get back to winning ways.”