Bernardo Silva has stressed that Manchester City need to keep winning.
The champions bounced back from last week’s surprise loss at Newcastle with a comfortable 3-1 defeat of Arsenal at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday.
That kept pressure on Liverpool at the top of the Premier League, with the gap now three points after the Reds were held at West Ham on Monday night, but Silva is aware any momentum could quickly be lost this week.
Great performance! Wednesday there’s more! 🔵🔵 @ManCity pic.twitter.com/ggTq2CxQCz — Bernardo Silva (@BernardoCSilva) February 3, 2019
City are back in action at Everton in a rearranged game on Wednesday before hosting Chelsea next Sunday.
The Portuguese midfielder said: “We knew after the Newcastle defeat we had to give a response to that game here in front of our fans.
“We are very happy with the win, very happy with the way we played.
“I think it was a good performance (to get) back to winning ways and mentally it is very good for us because now we have two very difficult games against Everton and Chelsea which we want to win.
Another, tough, relentless week ahead… but you know what? We're up for it! 💪#MondayMotivaton pic.twitter.com/8dzALB2E4U — Manchester City (@ManCity) February 4, 2019
“If we don’t, it will start getting very difficult to fight for this Premier League. If we want to keep being alive in the Premier League we have to win them.
“We have some pressure but we will keep trying to do our best.”
Manager Pep Guardiola changed his team’s approach against the Gunners by making a couple of tactical switches. Aymeric Laporte moved from central defence to fill the problematic left-back position while midfielder Fernandinho dropped into the back four.
The Brazil international, however, pushed back into his more familiar midfield role whenever City had possession.
The changes proved effective and City won without much alarm, courtesy of a Sergio Aguero hat-trick.
Silva said: “I think during the season we have tried many different things. We adapt to the ways other teams play.
“We try to attack the best way we think we can do when they play four at the back, five at the back or when they play with five midfielders, one attacker, two attackers. This was a good performance.
“We know how good Pep is.
“We are happy with the tactics and we just follow what Pep tells us. It worked so we are very happy with that.”
