Norwich City have been warned that Jack Grealish is settling into his new challenge at Manchester City, despite a quiet start since his £100million transfer.
The England midfielder came on for the final 25 minutes of the 1-0 loss to Leicester at Wembley in the Community Shield final and played all of the surprise 1-0 defeat to Tottenham during the opening weekend of Premier League action.
Next up for the champions is a first home game of the campaign, against the newly-promoted Canaries on Saturday.
“Jack has personality - it was an incredible debut,” manager Pep Guardiola said after the loss to Spurs.
“He will be so important for us and I congratulated him for his personality to try and try until the end.
"Personality, influence, three or four fouls in the first minutes. He is so dangerous close to the box.”
City know all about the top-level threat of the former Aston Villa skipper since kicking on from his development in the Championship.
Grealish weaved into the box and set up Conor Hourihane for the only goal at Villa Park on Boxing Day in 2019, after running the show and scoring a fine goal during a 5-1 victory at Carrow Road a couple of months earlier.
"I played with Jack a few times," teammate Raheem Sterling said, also speaking to the Citizens’ official website. "It's a good partnership but it’s still early days with me and him.
"We will learn each other's game more as the season goes on and hopefully build a better partnership for the rest of the campaign.”
The 25-year-old is a master of drawing fouls, with only Wilfried Zaha of Crystal Palace fouled more (six) than the five awarded in Grealish’s favour during the opening weekend - drilling one late shot straight at Spurs keeper Hugo Lloris.
Holland international Nathan Ake has started both games for Guardiola’s side so far and believes Grealish will prove successful.
"Very good and very confident," the former Bournemouth defender added. "He had a lot of good touches and brings a lot of threat to our attacking game.
"He will be a very good player for us for the rest of the season.”
Meanwhile, reports in the Manchester media suggest Ilkay Gundogan's shoulder injury is not as bad as first feared, with further scans needed to decide if the Germany midfielder will be fit to face Norwich.
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