When Jack Grealish led his Aston Villa team out at Villa Park to play the reigning Premier League champions, Liverpool, last weekend, the eventual 7-2 scoreline was surely beyond his wildest dreams.
It was a match in which the England midfielder flourished, scoring two goals of his own and setting up three more in one of the biggest surprises in the English top-flight for years.
A week after the destruction of the Reds, and a week in which he was handed his first England start by Gareth Southgate, Grealish has made a startling admission which arguably makes his performance last weekend even better.
“I had a fitness test on the day of the Liverpool game,” he said to The Guardian.
“I hadn’t even trained for the two days before it because I had a sore hamstring.
“I didn’t expect to play the way I did.”
As the season’s go by, Grealish is developing into the complete midfielder, with the maturity to his game now self evident.
His ability to break the lines at will for both club and country and remain on the front foot throughout games will stand him in good stead as he hits his peak years.
A man-of-the-match performance for England against Wales needn’t be viewed as a one-off either.
Southgate now has a conundrum once Raheem Sterling is back to full fitness, because Grealish has shown he can be relied upon in both a wide role and as a supplementary, marauding, attacking midfielder.