Pep Guardiola showed his faith in Bernardo Silva by starting the Portugal playmaker as a replacement for Fernandinho, rather than picking a more defensive-minded player or making a like-for-like switch.
Silva repaid that faith with a superlative performance, pulling the strings alongside Kevin De Bruyne and David Silva, as well as scoring a wonderful goal himself.
KEY STATS
Goals – 1
Assists – 0
Shots – 1
Shots on target – 1
Passing Accuracy – 76 per cent
Key Passes – 0
Dribbles – 2
Touches – 61
EFFECTIVENESS
It was a quietly effective game from the Portuguese, who benefitted from Fernandinho being out and thus freeing up a spot in the XI. Silva took that spot and grabbed onto it with both hands. His passing was neat and solid, he showed good vision, and, when his chance came, he took it with aplomb. It was a beautiful finish to get the ball rolling for City, the catalyst for the rest of the visitors’ dominance. While he didn’t fill up the stat sheet after that, he showed plenty of quality on the ball, and helped City maintain control of the game.
Bernardo Silva was the star of the show for Manchester City.
KEY MOMENT
15th min, GOAL: Superb work down the left from Leroy Sane and then a sumptuous finish from Silva
VERDICT – 9/10
It’s strange, in that other than his goal, it didn’t seem as if Silva did anything – he wasn’t involved in either of City’s other goals and there’s no eye-popping stat that you can point to and say: ‘see, this is how good he was.’ And yet, he was instrumental in City’s performance, helping the visitors to a dominant win. The way he keeps the ball ticking over even as an attacking midfielder is reminiscent of his namesake at the club, David Silva, and displays like this show why the younger Silva is seen as a long-term successor for his older colleague.
