Man City’s plan was to go 2-0 down against Villa jokes Guardiola
A boozy Jack Grealish left Pep Guardiola in stitches after jokingly insisting he was signed by Manchester City because he got the better of defender Kyle Walker when he played for Aston Villa. The City stars celebrated their fourth Premier League title success in five years in style on Monday evening.
Riyad Mahrez was allowed to take control of the microphone in front of the City fans and began quizzing England ace Walker on which players had beaten him in a one-v-one battle. Walker then paused before Mahrez started asking “[Kylian] Mbappe?...” to which the watching supporters shouted: “No!”
Mahrez continued to ask: “Neymar?...” and the crowd responded “No!”
It is at this point that £100million signing Grealish interjected and can be heard saying “It was me! It was me when I was at Villa.”
Jack Grealish left Pep Guardiola in stitches as Man City celebrated winning the Premier League (Image: TWITTER)
The 26-year-old is then handed the microphone by Mahrez, staggers forward and confidently boasts: “It was me when I was at Aston Villa. That is why Pep signed me.”
Guardiola was shown in stitches at the gag. The City head coach laughed along with assistant coach Juanma Lillo.
It was not the only time Grealish poked fun at a team-mate during the celebrations, which started with an open-top bus parade around the city centre. City pipped Liverpool to the Premier League title following a dramatic 3-2 come-from-behind victory over his former club, Villa.
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Man City's Jack Grealish won his first Premier League title (Image: GETTY)
Grealish was an unused substitute in the game but jokingly thanked Bernardo Silva for coming off in the 70th minute so that match-winner Ilkay Gundogan could go on. In a clip posted on City’s YouTube channel, he quipped: "It's my first title and I want to thank everyone, but the main person I want to thank is Bernardo Silva for coming off in the 70th minute because he was miles off it.”
The wide man then told substituted forward Mahrez that he ‘played like’ Newcastle winger Miguel Almiron - who has endured some tough form since his 2019 transfer from Atlanta United.
England star Grealish has had a roller-coaster first season at City and, by his own admission, has found the adaptation to Guardiola’s style tough. Asked for his assessment of the campaign by Sky Sports, he said on Sunday: "Harder than I thought. It's more difficult than I thought, but I've enjoyed every minute of it.
"I stepped out of my comfort zone to come here. New changing room, new surroundings, new team-mates and everything. It's been difficult, harder than I thought but this today makes up for it. It really does."