Dean Smith: Aston Villa skipper Jack Grealish gives side confidence
Dean Smith believes Jack Grealish is getting back to his best after the skipper helped inspire Villa to victory at Tottenham.
Grealish played 73 minutes in his first start for more than three months as Villa won 2-1 to dent Spurs’ European hopes.
Ollie Watkins’ 14th goal of the season proved the winner after Sergio Reguilon’s spectacular own goal had cancelled out Steven Bergwijn’s opener.
But it was Grealish, who had made only two substitute appearances after missing 12 matches with a shin injury, who pulled the strings with a timely performance, less than a week before Gareth Southgate names his England squad for Euro 2020.
Smith said: “You could see having Jack back gives everyone a lot of confidence. We created a number of chances.
“I think over the last couple of weeks he has been a little bit tentative compared to the normal Jack Grealish, which is understandable.
“Tonight I thought he exuded confidence. He looked assured. He wanted me to keep him on and I managed to get 12 minutes extra than the medical staff wanted. I have no doubts he will want to start against Chelsea on Sunday.”
The excellent Watkins was denied a second by Hugo Lloris while 17-year-old Carney Chukwuemeka, on as a substitute, struck the post in stoppage time.
Smith said: “Was the scoreline a fair reflection of the game? Probably not. To come here and have 20 attempts on goal shows the attacking intent of the players.
“We didn’t start as well as we would like. We made a mistake for the goal but our reaction to that was excellent. We had a bit of fortune for the own goal but we worked plenty of chances and I thought it was a worthy victory.”
