Bernardo Silva spoke of a ‘frustrating’ draw with Tottenham Hotspur, which was marred by late controversy when Simon Hooper halted Jack Grealish’s run towards goal – despite earlier playing the advantage.
‘The little details matter at this level,’ explained the midfielder, ‘and we need to defend better as a team. We need to look at ourselves. We need to also finish and kill the game as we had the chances. We were very dominant – against Liverpool as well. It’s very frustrating and disappointing to finish this game with just one point.’
The Portuguese international rued the dropped points, after adding that he felt Manchester City were ‘much better than [Tottenham]. It was a good game to play but frustrating not to get the three points. We created so many chances and were very good in the pressing but in the end if you don’t score your goals, it will cost you games and cost you points – that’s what has been happening in the last games.’
Embed from Getty Images‘Individually, we need to look at ourselves and do better,’ he reflected. ‘If we want to win games, we cannot concede three or four goals every game – sometimes we will score five or six but most of the time we will not be able to, so we need to defend well as a team. Everyone needs to do better. Offensively as well – make better decisions, demand more from ourselves and if we do that we are a very difficult team to stop.’
Manchester City’s attention now turns to a midweek fixture against Aston Villa, with Pep Guardiola’s side heading down the M6 on Wednesday. Bernardo Silva emphasised the need to respect the opposition, telling reporters that ‘we need to be prepared because we know how good they are this season and how well managed and organised they’ve been. We need to recovery mentally and physically to be prepared for that game.’