Bernardo Silva not surprised by gap between Manchester City and their Premier League rivals

Tom Biggs 16:48 16/03/2018
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  • Bernardo Silva celebrates against Arsenal.

    Bernardo Silva has been a bit-part and big-game player in equal measure so far this season for Manchester City.

    The summer signing from Monaco had completed the full 90 minutes on just two occasions in the Premier League before the end of January, in a 3-0 home win against Burnley and a 4-0 away success at Swansea City.

    But he has since scored against top-six rivals Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal, while playing the full 90 minutes in five-straight games before dropping to the bench for Monday night’s victory against Stoke City.

    It may well have taken time for the Portugual international to settle into life at Etihad Stadium, but he’s certainly showing why Pep Guardiola paid just over £40 million (Dh205.3m) for his services last summer.

    “When you change it’s always complicated,” Silva admitted. “When I moved from Portugal to Monaco it was difficult in the first months, now when I move from Monaco to Manchester it’s difficult as well.

    “You have to adapt to the way the team plays because every team plays a different way. I’m feeling better and better and I hope I can improve even more.

    “I’ve learned a lot of things with all of the staff and players and it has been fantastic for me.”

    Silva’s goals against three of City’s Premier League rivals have all come since the turn of the year, and the attacking midfielder says he has always relished the pressure of the big games.

    Bernardo Silva celebrates against Chelsea.

    Bernardo Silva celebrates against Chelsea.

    “Players like the pressure, me as well I’m not an exception. I try to do my best to get the trust of the manager to play these kind of games and I hope I can play many more,” he explained.

    “I think all of the players like to be in the big games. You like to play Champions League, to try to go to the final and the big games in the Premier League.”

    City have blitzed their rivals away this season in the Premier League, and while Silva is slightly surprised by the size of the gap between them and rivals Manchester United in second, he believes it is just reward for their efforts this campaign.

    “Normally in the Premier League you have six teams, sometimes more as we saw with Leicester City, that can win it and it is true this season the gap is a little bigger than usual,” added Silva.

    “It means we’re doing a fantastic job with the way we’ve played this seven or eight months until now. It’s well deserved the position we have in the league and hopefully we can win the title as soon as we can. We’ve been doing a good job and we want to keep that going.”

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