City Xtra
·9 December 2024
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Yahoo sportsCity Xtra
·9 December 2024
Bernardo Silva has insisted that he is simply ‘not happy’ with a point for Manchester City against Crystal Palace on Saturday afternoon, despite coming from behind twice.
The Premier League champions lost further ground in their pursuit of an unprecedented fifth consecutive English top-flight crown at the weekend, and failed to build upon their return to winning ways against Nottingham Forest just a few days prior.
Maxence Lacroix’s second-half goal adding to Daniel Munoz’s effort inside the opening five minutes restored Crystal Palace’s lead following Erling Haaland’s equaliser, only for Rico Lewis to combine with Bernardo Silva to bring the scoring back level.
The 2-2 draw at Selhurst Park now leaves Manchester City in fourth position within the Premier League, trailing Liverpool by eight points who have a game in hand, four points adrift of Chelsea, and two points behind Arsenal.
Speaking to reporters after an eventful afternoon’s work in London on Saturday, Bernardo Silva was quizzed on whether it is a case of one point gained, or two lost for Manchester City against Crystal Palace.
“We’re Man City, it’s always two points lost,” the Portugal international made clear. “But we take the point, it’s better than zero.
“But we’re not happy, we’re not happy with the moment, we’re not happy with just a point in any game that we play… We have to do much better than this!”
“When I finish a game and I get a point I’m not happy with that. That’s not the way that we built this team, that’s not our standard, so very disappointing today,” the Manchester City midfielder continued.
Continuing on the subject of the Premier League title race and whether Manchester City still believe they can turn things around and mount a stronger challenge for the trophy, Silva explained, “We’re in December.
“Of course we would like to be in a different position in the table. I would say if we recover our players quickly, we can always do it. But right now our concern is a different one. We’re not looking at the top if we’re fourth or fifth in the league.”
The Manchester City midfielder continued, “We have to look at winning the next game and doing better because the last month and a half was just not good enough.”
Bernardo Silva is likely to play a significant role in a huge seven days for Manchester City across competitions this week, as the club travels to Turin to take on Juventus on matchday six of the UEFA Champions League.
A defeat to Sporting Lisbon on matchday four followed by a 3-3 home draw to Feyenoord has meant that the clash against the Italian giants is a crucial moment for Pep Guardiola’s side and their hopes of reaching the last-16 of the competition.
The visit to Italy will then be followed up by the club’s second meeting with Ruben Amorim this season, as the Portuguese coach brings his Manchester United side to the Etihad Stadium for a derby day meeting on Sunday.