Dean Smith: Aston Villa will keep pushing Jack Grealish

Grealish is comfortably on course to enjoy the best season of his career having scored five goals and set up six more in the first 12 matches of the campaign.

The 25-year-old created eight goal-scoring opportunities during last Sunday’s 3-0 win at Albion, the most by a player in a Premier League away game for five seasons.

Smith said: "Jack is on another level, he's playing wonderful football. At West Brom it looked like he was playing in the playground with his mates.

"His big mate Callum Robinson came on (for Albion) at the end and Jack picked up the ball in our half and I just knew he was going to try and run past him. He wanted to show what he could do!

"It was a fantastic performance and the levels he's got to now, we need to keep pushing him and squeezing even more out of him where we can. He's a joy to watch at the moment."

Academy product Grealish has credited Smith with helping improve his game since the head coach was appointed in October, 2018.

Having lead Villa back to the Premier League through the play-offs in 2019, Grealish scored nine league goals last season including a crucial strike at West Ham which saw them avoid relegation on the final day.

He then signed a new five-year deal on the eve of the current season and has finally made a long-awaited breakthrough into the senior England set-up. But Smith believes there is still room for improvement.

“There's more to come definitely. There's still improvements,” said the boss. “Sometimes he picks the ball up a little bit too deep at times.

"He wants to be involved in the game all the time. He's had a different role in the last couple of games, playing as a No. 10, and he's played it very well.

"I think he's been playing in wide left areas and as a left forward, there he can come inside and link the play.

“But he has done really well as a 10, I just felt in those games he would find more space and more of the ball in those areas and he has done. For other games, there could be other areas where I feel he's better off."

Grealish and Villa were due to have their biggest showcase of the season this afternoon when they hosted Crystal Palace, with the match (kick-off 3pm) screened live on BBC One, the club's first fixture on free-to-air television for 28 years.