ARSENAL are the new version of Manchester City’s Centurions, according to Bernardo Silva.
The Gunners’ surprise title challenge has taken the Premier League by storm with a club-record 50 points by the mid-way point.
But they suffered a major blow with Wednesday’s 3-1 defeat at home to City which saw the reigning champs leapfrog into top spot on goal difference.
Four-time Etihad winner Silva, though, is full of admiration for this “great and very tough” Arsenal team that bears a strong resemblance to Pep Guardiola’s dominant Class of 2018.
Silva, who worked with Emirates boss Mikel Arteta when he was Guardiola’s assistant, said: “Arsenal have a great team with a lot of energy.
“We will fight until the end, knowing that we are going to fight against a very tough side that reminds me of us five years ago.
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“They’re so young, they’re so good, their energy is so nice.
“But we are here and want to win again. We know it’s not going to be easy but we will fight.
“We have struggled this season to get to that winning run, winning three, four games and then losing one. It’s quite disappointing.
“Hopefully we get to that run and finish this season in the best possible way.
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“I think it is going to go up until the end.”
Manchester City became the first away team to win at the Emirates in the Premier League since April.
And Guardiola needed to rip up his “horrible” tactics at 1-1 to get the job done.
As he did against Aston Villa, Silva started at left-back out of possession but struggled to cope with Bukayo Saka before being switched to right-wing when Manuel Akanji replaced Riyad Mahrez.
The Portuguese star, 28, added on his new role: “I’m not going to lie, it’s very tough.
“When you have play those positions you have to have a defender’s mentality.
“You lose a little bit your offensive thinking and what you do with the ball. You are more focused on not making mistakes and defending well, occupying the spaces.
“It’s been challenging but it’s been nice. It’s a good challenge. I love challenges.”
Silva reserved special praise for team-mate Jack Grealish after his winner.
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The £100million record signing now has two goals and four assists since returning from the World Cup and is starting to display his top quality for City.
Silva said: “Jack is doing very very well, not just the goals and assists, the way he keeps the ball and helps us breathe.
“In this game, for example, we could not keep the ball, but the way he manages to give us that breath. I am really happy for him because he is a great guy.”
Kevin De Bruyne, who opened the scoring with a sublime finish then assisted Erling Haaland to seal the points, also hailed the former Villa captain and new rivals Arsenal.
The Belgian said: “It’s never easy to come to our team but Jack’s been playing great this year.
“People look at the stats all the time but he does very important things for us. We’re winning a lot of games and he’s a big part of that, playing almost every game.
“We know he’s doing a really good job for us.
“Arsenal are exceptional, a really good team. They play such good football and it is hard to play against them.
“They merit being where they are and we had to come here and show something.
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“Every year gets tougher because of the quality of the teams. Everyone does such good business and gets so much quality in.
“Doing what we did in the last few years, every team we come up against wants to beat us.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
