Yannick Carrasco returned from his suspension by Dalian Yifang to score and assist in a 3-1 win for the club on Saturday.

As we reported on earlier this week, Dalian decided to lift Carrasco’s suspension based on his good behaviour and the fact he’d taken the initiative to apologise to the club and his teammates.

The winger had initially been handed a training suspension after returning from international duty late, though he claims this was due to an injury with Belgium. The timing wasn’t great, considering the growing rumours about a transfer to Arsenal at that point.

Carrasco returned to the pitch on Saturday, and he had a key role to play in the match for Dalian. With his team 1-0 down, he converted a penalty to make it 1-1, before setting up a second goal just a minute later.

Those goals gave the club their first win since Carrasco left for international duty at the end of May. They’d been struggling without him, losing twice and drawing once. Carrasco now has eight goals and three assists in 11 CSL games this season.

What this means for a potential summer transfer, it’s hard to say. Carrasco is certainly trying to mend fences on social media, tweeting phrases like ‘time to fight all together’ and ‘let’s continue like this’ since the suspension was lifted.

https://twitter.com/CarrascoY21/status/1144982418539065344

Maybe the winger has resigned himself to staying until the end of another season in China, or perhaps he’s just trying to prove to prospective clubs that he doesn’t have a bad attitude.