Jack Grealish

West Midlands Police launched an investigation after they were called to the Dickens Heath area of Solihull, where two parked cars suffered minor damage.

Aston Villa captain Grealish appeared to be pictured at the scene on social media following the incident.

Grealish had urged the public to stay at home just a day earlier after the Government last week enforced a lockdown and the midfielder has expressed his regret over failing to heed his own warning.

"Hi everybody. I just want to do a quick video message just to say how deeply embarrassed I am about what has happened this weekend." he said in a video posted on his Twitter account.

"I know it's a tough time for everyone at the moment, being locked indoors for so long and I obviously just got a call off a friend asking to go round to his. I stupidly agreed to do so.

"I don't want anyone to make the same mistake that I did, so obviously I urge everyone to stay at home and follow the rules and the guidelines of what we've been asked to do.

"I know for a fact that I'll be doing that in the near future now and obviously, like I said, I urge everyone to do the same.

"I hope everyone can accept my apology and we can move on from this, and hopefully obviously in the near future we can all be out enjoying ourselves again, once this has all boiled over. So cheers guys and thank you."

A Villa statement confirmed Grealish would receive a fine, with the money going to a local hospitals charity.

It read: "Aston Villa is deeply disappointed that one of our players ignored the Government's guidance on staying at home during the coronavirus crisis. 

"Club captain Jack Grealish has accepted that his decision to leave his house was wrong and entirely unnecessary. It breached the government guidelines which are clear and should be adhered to by everybody. 

"The player will be disciplined and fined with the proceeds donated to The University Hospitals Charity in Birmingham."

Ian Foster's side came from behind against Israel in Friday's final in Slovakia to win 3-1 after extra-time, five years after their last triumph in the tournament.

Callum Doyle's second half finish cancelled out Oscar Gloch's opener, before young Aston Villa duo Carney Chukwuemeka and Aaron Ramsey sealed the deal in an extended final half-hour.

It marked the second comeback win on the trot after the Young Lions were forced to recover against Italy in their semi-final.

Their triumph however has been roundly celebrated by senior stars, including former Villa man Grealish, who broke through at Euro 2020 with England following his final season with the club.

"Get in there boys! [A] massive well done to everyone involved!" the Manchester City winger wrote on Twitter.

Three Lions captain Harry Kane also offered his congratulations, adding: "Brilliant lads. Well done and enjoy the celebrations."

Several members of the winning squad will harbour ambitions of breaking into the senior set-up in the coming years, with Mason Mount and Aaron Ramsdale among those who won in 2017 to have since become full England internationals.

On an individual level, Grealish's debut season at Manchester City had not been a roaring success.

But his six goal involvements in the Premier League dwarfed Almiron's one, giving Grealish the confidence to talk down the Newcastle winger the day after City's dramatic 3-2 title-clinching win against former club Aston Villa.

Misfiring City team-mate Riyad Mahrez needed to be substituted "as soon as possible" in that match, a drunken Grealish said, because he had "played like Almiron".

For his part, Almiron brushed off the barb and wished Grealish well.

Meanwhile, the horrified City winger, having sobered up, sought to apologise to the Paraguay international and acknowledged he deserved "a lot of stick off the Newcastle fans".

Grealish was at least spared slightly in that regard as a minor injury kept him out in August when City visited St James' Park for a match in which Almiron scored his first of 10 goals this season.

Almiron then netted six in October alone, when it seemed he could do no wrong. Only once in his Premier League career has Grealish tallied more than six across an entire season.

But heading into Saturday's reverse fixture between City and Newcastle in Manchester, Grealish is the form man, playing his best football under Pep Guardiola.

Since the World Cup, a period in which fellow left-sided attacker Phil Foden has struggled for fitness, Grealish has two goals and four assists in the league. Including cup competitions, he has a further two assists on top.

Those eight goal involvements in 16 matches (one every 134 minutes) compare to 11 in 55 (one every 343 mins) over the first 16 months of Grealish's City career.

However, his is an upturn that can be explained no more easily than Almiron's.

Following the World Cup, looking at slightly more granular per-90 metrics, Grealish has actually seen a decline in chances created, passes into the box, touches and touches in the box. A very slight boost in expected assists does not account for those improved assist numbers.

Yet as long as Grealish continues to deliver in big games, supplying goals against Manchester United and Arsenal and assists against Chelsea and Arsenal, Guardiola is unlikely to mind.

City at least have alternative options if this run proves unsustainable. They head into Saturday's latest sizeable match on a high – in complete contrast with a stuttering Newcastle and their leading marksman regressing to the mean.

Almiron outperformed his xG by 3.3 across that inexplicable October but has otherwise almost exactly matched his expected figure over the rest of the season.

Worse still for Newcastle, Almiron's team-mates have failed to even do that since the World Cup.

In all competitions, only four Premier League teams have scored fewer goals per game than Newcastle (0.9) over that period, yet the Magpies rank fifth for xG per game (1.8).

Eddie Howe's side should have scored roughly twice as many goals as they have, underperforming their total xG of 25.6 by 12.6. Chelsea's underperformance of 9.4 is next-worst, followed by a distant 6.3 from Everton.

While Newcastle have won only five of 14 matches since the restart, they have come out on top on xG in 11 of those.

Almiron is not the problem, it appears, but another run like that of earlier in the season might be required to set Newcastle back on track.

Instead, confidence is again on Grealish's side, with the England man primed to this time do his talking on the pitch after last May's title party mishap.

England manager Southgate was criticised by many, including Neville, for not bringing on midfielder Phil Foden during Friday's goalless World Cup draw with the United States.

Speaking in his role as a pundit for ITV, Neville – capped 85 times by England – said: "Phil Foden is a generational talent that I feel as though he has to play.

"He has to be played into form, and it has to work with England. I went through my career with England where there were times Paul Scholes was mishandled.

"I even woke up this morning thinking, 'has something happened in training? Has something happened off the pitch which has meant Gareth hasn't seen what he wants to see?'."

However, Grealish denies Southgate has any issues with individuals, having himself been in a similar position to Foden at Euro 2020 when struggling for minutes.

"If he did have a problem they'd know about it," he told BBC Sport. "I saw something, it might have been Gary Neville saying there's something going on behind the scenes.

"People always used to say 'he's got a problem with Jack' last year or two years ago and then I come on and it's like, 'he likes Jack now, who's it next?'.

"Then it's that he doesn't like Madders [James Maddison] and now he's in. Phil didn't play so he might have a problem with him. He doesn't have a problem with anyone.

"He speaks to all of us the same. Phil didn't play the other night but he's still the same with Phil as he is with me or Harry Kane – he's not got a problem with anyone."

England beat Iran 6-2 to make their best start to a World Cup campaign before underwhelming in their stalemate with the USA.

With four points from two matches, Southgate's side will advance to the last 16 if they avoid a four-goal defeat to Wales at Ahmed bin Ali Stadium on Tuesday.

That has not stopped Southgate being criticised for his team selection, but Grealish added: "Sometimes I just think whatever happens with England there's always something. 

"We scored six and we were the best thing since sliced bread and then we didn't score for 90 minutes and it's the end of the world. We're top of the group, it's in our hands."

City forked out a reported £100million fee to land attacking midfielder Grealish from Aston Villa in August.

Grealish has managed three goals and three assists from 25 games across all competitions, numbers the England international himself recently suggested do not back up his own personal feeling that Guardiola has improved him as a footballer.

But the City boss says Grealish should take a step back from being too enamoured by the statistics alone.

"Maybe he's wrong. Maybe he listens too much to what people say. It's wrong but the statistics are better and he plays quite similar to Aston Villa in terms of ball contact," Guardiola said.

"He had the chances against Crystal Palace in 20 minutes to score three goals. It didn't happen but it's going to happen. 

"We didn't buy him to score 45 goals. He doesn't have that quality he has another one."

Grealish has missed the past three weeks with a shin problem but is in contention to face Peterborough United in the FA Cup fifth round on Tuesday.

Guardiola is of the opinion that Grealish is not alone in focusing too much on the hard numbers.

"Always we talk about the statistics – the players today play for the statistics but this is the biggest mistake they can do," he added.

"We're involved in that. Statistics are just a bit of information that we have but there are players that make the team play good and they are not into statistics. But the players say how many goals I score or how many assists or...

"With these kinds of situation, they forget everything. Statistics never existed before. It's how you play today if you perform to your maximum, to your best, help your team-mates to make the process defensively and offensively better – it's enough. Thanks to that we are going to win.

"Everyone has agents and managers and everything and say what they have to do better and they listen to a lot of things about what they have to do. 

"He's playing good. I would tell him – I wouldn't tell you – if he's not playing good, but that's not the case."

Mbappe, 21, has repeatedly been linked to Real Madrid, rumours which only intensified after the forward was involved in a bust-up with coach Thomas Tuchel.

But PSG are prepared to make the France international see out his contract, rather than lose one of their star players.

TOP STORY – PSG STANDING FIRM OVER MBAPPE AMID MADRID LINKS

PSG will not listen to offers for Mbappe amid links to Real Madrid, according to Marca.

Mbappe is contracted in Paris until 2022 and the Ligue 1 giants are willing to make him see out his deal.

PSG have also tried to extend Mbappe's contract, moves which are set to continue despite his seeming unhappiness at the club.

ROUND-UP

- With Ole Gunnar Solskjaer under some pressure at Old Trafford, Mauricio Pochettino has not given up on becoming Manchester United manager ahead of next season, according to the Mirror.

- While Pochettino may arrive, Paul Pogba seems likely to leave United. Tuttosport reports the midfielder and Juventus attacker Paulo Dybala dream of playing together again, with Pogba perhaps set for a return to Turin. Dybala is in contract talks with Juventus with his deal expiring in 2022.

- Jack Grealish seems to know where he wants to be. Goal reports the midfielder is ready to join Manchester United from Aston Villa, although no formal talks have taken place. The Sun says Grealish prefers Manchester United over other clubs, while the Mirror reports Manchester City have joined the race for the Englishman.

- With Luis Suarez set to miss most of the rest of the season due to injury, Barcelonaare eyeing a move for … Luis Suarez. El Larguero reports Barcelona have made contact with Real Zaragoza over the forward, who is on loan from Watford. Suarez has scored 14 goals in the Segunda Division this season.

- On loan at Newcastle United from Tottenham, Danny Rose will be watched by Paris Saint-Germain ahead of a possible move at the end of the season, according to The Sun.

Grealish made 10 appearances in total at Euro 2020 and the 2022 World Cup, but nine of those came off the bench as he played the role of impact player.  

All 35 of his England caps have come under Southgate, but a stop-start campaign with Manchester City has seen his place called into question ahead of the Euros.

Injuries and poor form limited Grealish to just 20 appearances across all competitions in 2023-24, after he provided five goals and seven assists as City won the treble in 2022-23.

Ahead of this week's warm-up friendlies against Bosnia and Herzegovina and Iceland, Southgate said Grealish's attitude has never been in doubt.

"He has been really bright and he loves being here. He's had a good energy about his training," Southgate said.

"This season he has not played as much. I'm sure he would have liked that to be different but we know the qualities he can bring. 

"He is a player we enjoy working with and a character we enjoy having within the group."

However, with Phil Foden, Bukayo Saka, Cole Palmer, Anthony Gordon, Jarrod Bowen, James Maddison and Eberechi Eze all capable of playing in the wide areas, some have questioned if Grealish will be retained when Southgate cuts his 33-man squad to 26.

Asked if Grealish was at risk, Southgate said: "I don't think we're defining that just yet. I think we know where we're likely to be. 

"It's hard to be quite so specific because we keep sitting down and saying: 'Okay, if it's this or this'. Then somebody else in the room says: 'What about if we lose that player there, or that one doesn't come through with his injury? Do we need another one in this area?'

"Time is our friend this week. It's worth using the time.

"There are a lot of good players in that area of the pitch and they are all competing. We think we know who the best have been across the season. 

"What we don't totally know is how many we need to take or how many we can allow ourselves to take because of the cover we might need in other positions."

Heading into a Nations League double-header against Belgium and Iceland, pressure is building on Southgate to name Aston Villa captain Grealish in his XI.

The 25-year-old switched allegiance from the Republic of Ireland to England in 2015 but did not make his senior Three Lions debut until September this year.

Even after breaking into Southgate's squad, Grealish - who has four goals and five assists in the Premier League this season - has struggled to hold down a place in the line-up.

Grealish's bow came from the bench in the goalless Nations League draw against Denmark, while his only two subsequent appearances have been in friendlies, starting in 3-0 wins over both Wales and Ireland.

The midfielder had a team-high two assists across those matches, while only Mason Mount (four) created more chances than his three, one of which was classed as a big chance.

It seems far from certain Grealish will get another opportunity from the outset in Belgium on Sunday, yet Southgate welcomed the challenges that come with a deep squad.

The England manager pointed to Eriksson's time at the helm when he had an array of options - most notably the midfield pair of Gerrard and Lampard, who were said to be too alike to play together.

"If you want to be manager of any big football club or national team, you've got to make decisions that you believe are the right ones for the team, for the whole group for the right reasons depending on the opponent," Southgate told reporters.

"That's part of life at the top. If you don't want that, go and work somewhere else, frankly.

"We're blessed; we've got some very good players. But I'm imagining when Sven had to pick from [David] Beckham, [Paul] Scholes, Gerrard, Lampard, [Michael] Carrick, that was a pretty difficult choice as well.

"You had Champions League winners in every position, [Wayne] Rooney, [Michael] Owen, European Footballer of the Year at the time.

"All big managers or all managers of big teams have to make those decisions and you've got to be strong, you've got to make them for the right reasons.

"We need a strong squad. In tomorrow's game, we'll need more than 11 - and we've got another game on Wednesday. We need to win them both to be able to win the group."

England beat Belgium in the sides' previous meeting at Wembley, but a subsequent home defeat to Denmark means the Three Lions must win this weekend to reclaim top spot in their group.

Southgate hopes the tide is turning for his side against elite opposition, acknowledging they have struggled previously against the world's best - including in a run to the World Cup semi-finals.

"If you look at history, we haven't been a country that have beaten the big teams," he said. "That's the great challenge for us. There's been very few wins against big nations in tournaments - that's a fact.

"Even in qualifying, I can go back; '98 in qualifying, Italy beat us at Wembley, Gianfranco Zola, and we got a draw in Rome to get us through.

"The perception that we've been an outstanding nation doesn't tally with the results over the years. That's a great opportunity for this team.

"In the last few months before the World Cup, I think we lost in France, lost in Germany, draws with Belgium and Germany at Wembley. We weren't able to nail the big teams.

"Since the World Cup, we had the win in Spain, the draw and the win against Croatia, and the win against Belgium now. We're starting to build those results.

"To be a really top team, you've got to do that consistently, and that's the great challenge for us. It's not an easy one - there's some fantastic teams out there - but it's not one we're fearful of."