Jack Grealish had a forgettable return to Villa Park as his Manchester City side suffered a 2-1 loss to Aston Villa before Christmas. It compounded misery on Pep Guardiola’ side, who have now lost seven of their last 10 matches and were left in sixth place in the Premier League table.
Grealish was involved in a difficult battle with Matty Cash as he tried to be instrumental to his side’s attacking style through the left-wing. He failed to really create anything significant and had an underwhelming outing in which he was involved in some emotional, heated moments.
After the end of the game, Grealish was respectable enough to shake hands with the officials but got into a bit of a verbal spat with Amadou Onana. The Aston Villa midfielder had a great outing for the Villans and helped keep the Cityzens’ quiet inside his team’s half, as he was really determined to help his side win this game.
Onana was full of emotions and energy following the final whistle and seemed to be furious with Grealish at one point. After taking part in the post-match handshakes with some players, the Belgian midfielder was able to detect Grealish making his way to the dressing room.
The Belgian midfielder suddenly started lashing out at the Manchester City winger, hurling out abuses at the Englishman. Onana was seen pointing at Grealish and shouting ‘You’re a f****** b****, you’re a b****,’ at the winger before Erling Haaland and Pep Guardiola approached Onana to calm him down.
The Aston Villa midfielder looked ready to have a tussle with Grealish at that moment before the tensions were cleared and Jack didn’t look encouraged to have a fight with the physical Belgian ace either. This incident between Onana and Grealish confused many because it wasn’t clear exactly why Onana had developed such animosity for the ex-Villa skipper.
Well, it turns out that the spat was triggered by something that actually happened during the match and the half-time break. As the two teams were heading in the dressing room after the half-time whistle, Grealish had a confrontation with Emiliano Martinez where he acted a bit aggressively towards the goalkeeper for some reason.
The Manchester City winger had some choice words for Martinez, who reacted aggressively, and the two had to be separated by both sets of players heading into the dressing room. Grealish also acted bitterly towards the end of the game when it was seemingly obvious that the Villans would be getting all three points.
The Englishman picked up a yellow card in the 87th minute for a cynical foul on John McGinn, where he clearly targeted his ex-teammate’s legs rather than go for the ball.
Grealish acting aggressively towards McGinn seemed to be the final straw for Onana, who was fuming with him and and hurled some threatening abuse towards the English winger.
Fortunately, the heated argument was cooled down by the likes of Haaland and Pep, but Onana was ready to throw down with Grealish if need be. The Belgian midfielder has settled in really well at Aston Villa, and moments like these show that he’s a warrior who is ready to fight for his teammates on the pitch, both during the course of a match or even after it’s over.
