Bernardo Silva claims Arsenal simply took advantage of Manchester City’s period of bad form to win 5-1 last season, and he insists they’ve recovered from that blip now.
Back in February, Bernardo Silva captained Manchester City to their biggest defeat to Arsenal since the year 2000, with five different goalscorers in a convincing 5-1 result at the Emirates Stadium.
Reflecting on that defeat this week, Silva has refused to give credit to Arsenal, suggesting they were just able to capitalise on a down period for City.
“It was a period during the season where we didn’t have the level to compete with any team,” Bernardo said.
“They saw the opportunity to come after the guys who took away their title for two years and they came for us which is normal.
“It was tough for us for three months and then when we recovered it was too late, because we were already 25 points or something behind.
“If you look at the last 15 to 20 games of the season, we did well. We were the team in the second half of the Premier League which had the most points.
“So the team recovered to the right level at the end of the season but, it was a period where it was tough for us, and they took advantage.”
Arsenal fans would likely argue that February’s result was as much about Mikel Arteta’s team as about Pep Guardiola’s.
The Gunners were on a good run of form at the time, with an unbeaten Premier League run stretching back all the way to early November and an impressive Champions League campaign that ended up taking the team all the way to the semi-finals.
But it’s understandable that Manchester City’s players and fans want to view the game as part of a short-lived blip that doesn’t really reflect the level of either club, suggesting this weekend could be a very different story.