Everton match-winner - The stats behind Jack Grealish's return to form in the Premier League

Jack Grealish was once again the difference maker for David Moyes’ side, as they overcame Bournemouth by a solitary goal in a hard-fought 1-0 win on Wednesday. Not only did all three points move Everton up to ninth in the Premier League table, but it also means that Grealish & Co. have only lost one of their last five league games in the English top-flight. And much of that is down to the success of the 30-year-old winger since he made his loan move to Merseyside from Manchester City in the summer.

Indeed, after a few seasons of relative inactivity in Pep Guardiola’s squad, Grealish has jumped back into life under Moyes at Everton and has quickly begun to look like his old self in the Premier League. Tuesday night’s goal was the winger’s second of the league campaign and when coupled with a further four assists, it means that just four wingers in the entire division have bagged more goal contributions than the on-loan talent at the Hill Dickinson Stadium. "I don't think I played that well," said Grealish after the win over Bournemouth to the BBC. "And then Pickers [Jordan Pickford] came up to me and said, 'that was your worst game and you got the winner'. They [Everton fans] were singing my name before the goal, so they wanted more from me and I gave it to them."

Unsurprisingly, Grealish’s form in his first 13 league games for Everton is a notable improvement on what he achieved in his last few seasons at Man City. Following Tuesday night’s heroics, the winger is now sitting on average of 0.50 goals and assists per 90 minutes of league football for Moyes’ side. That’s twice his rate from last season at Man City (0.25 per 90) and a 39 percent increase on his form in the 2023/24 season. It even rivals his form for Man City at the peak of his powers in Guardiola’s side, when the English winger averaged 0.52 goals and assists per 90 in the 2022/23 campaign. As we can see in the graphic above, as things currently stand, this season is Grealish’s third best since he broke into Aston Villa’s first team squad back in 2019.

Whether Grealish could have still achieved such numbers at Man City this season is an impossible question to answer, but Guardiola will surely be taking note of the winger’s form and comparing it to the relatively poor return from the players in his squad in this league campaign. Despite scoring five goals against Fulham on Tuesday night, Guardiola’s squad is still remarkably reliant on Erling Haaland to score and often create goals in every game. As such, only Phil Foden has managed to keep pace with the goal contributions that Grealish has racked up at Everton this season. And if that remains the case for the remainder of this campaign, Guardiola may think twice about letting the English winger make his move to Merseyside permanent in the summer.