How Almiron has Proved Critics Wrong Since Grealish Joke

At the end of the 2021/22 season, Manchester City winger Jack Grealish made some rather disrespectful comments towards Newcastle United’s Paraguayan winger Miguel Almiron in the Cityzens' end-of-season party after being crowned as champions for the fourth time in five seasons.

The former Aston Villa man had blatantly had a lot to drink as he was celebrating his first Premier League title with City, but, he criticised teammate Riyad Mahrez to Bernardo Silva live on camera, saying: Take (Mahrez) off the pitch as soon as possible. He’s playing like Almiron.

At this present time, ironically, despite the abundance of talent that Grealish has, he could only wish he was playing as well as Almiron, below, we discuss why.

So far this season, Almiron is having a sensational campaign for the Magpies, scoring his sixth goal of the season at the weekend, which proved to be the match-winner, pushing the Geordies into the top four at this stage in a campaign for the first time in just over ten years.

At present, Almiron averages a goal every 168 minutes this season, having taken 19 shots, with a shot accuracy of 53%, whilst converting 32%. This sees the former Atlanta United man be the joint-top scoring midfielder in the league, alongside the likes of Phil Foden, James Maddison and Leandro Trossard.

Meanwhile, since joining City in the summer of 2021 for £100m, a British transfer record, Grealish has scored seven goals in 50 matches for City, with just four of these being in the Premier League. So far this campaign, Grealish has scored once, in 11 appearances across all competitions, with six of these coming in the Premier League - playing just 395 minutes to the Paraguayan’s 1007 on the pitch.

Despite saying that Mahez was playing like Almiron, the Algerian is also no better off in terms of statistics, scoring once in nine Premier League games, featuring in just 370 minutes.

The 2022/23 season is already Almiron’s best in terms of goals at Newcastle, with his previous best being the four he managed in 2019/20 and 2020/21, having shown improvements under Eddie Howe, following the days of defensive football under both Rafael Benitez and Steve Bruce.

Notably, Almiron’s first goal of the season came in Newcastle’s thrilling 3-3 draw with Manchester City at St James’ Park in August, a game that the Magpies ought to have won having taken a 3-1 lead in that game.

Following that match, which was his third appearance of the season, Almiron failed to score in his next four fixtures, before scoring five goals in his last five games, bagging a brace against Fulham, as well as scoring past Brentford, Everton and Tottenham. His projected goal tally lies at 19 goals - this would comfortably surpass his best-ever record in a season, when he scored 12 goals in 32 games whilst playing for Atlanta in 2018 when he won the MLS Cup.

Realistically, somewhere just over the double figures mark would be a superb effort by the Paraguayan, although something he will be keen to add to his game are assists, as the 28-year-old has none this season, although there is still plenty of time yet.

It will also be interesting to see where Newcastle end up come the end of the season. Despite being fourth in the Premier League right now, any form of qualification for European football would be a huge success, as it would further open the door due to an increase in reputation for the club across the continent, whilst giving them extra revenue FFP-wise.