Middlesbrough travel to Dean Smith’s Aston Villa on Saturday with their position in the Championship play-off places at risk.
Tony Pulis has singled out ‘top player’ Jack Grealish ahead of Middlesbrough’s Championship clash with Aston Villa on Saturday, speaking to the Northern Echo.
Boro will travel to Villa Park tomorrow as we head into the business end of what has been another thrilling season in England’s second tier. A win for Dean Smith’s side would put them within one point of their North East opponents with less than two months remaining before the end of the campaign.
Aston Villa have won each of their last three Championship games with Grealish unsurprisingly at the forefront. He scored the winner in last week’s feisty Midlands derby away at Birmingham City.
And former West Brom boss Pulis has paid tribute to the skilful number ten while pointing out that he is not the only quality player in Aston Villa’s squad.
“Villa are on a great run. They’ve got an exceptional squad when everyone is fit,” Pulis said.
“Grealish would be a top player in the Premier League and is obviously important for them. (We) need to give everything against a very good Villa side and I’ll make a couple of changes to help with that if I can.”
Grealish has scored four goals and produced a further four assists in the Championship this season and The Mail reports that Tottenham Hotspur are still monitoring their long-time target ahead of the summer transfer window, perhaps due to concerns over the future of Christian Eriksen.
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