Bernardo Silva reveals how Man City exploited Arsenal's tactics in 4-1 win
By Tom Gott
Manchester City midfielder Bernardo Silva has admitted that Mikel Arteta's tactics were 'perfect' to exploit as Pep Guardiola's side thumped the Premier League leaders 4-1.
A dominant City performance saw the reigning champions move just two points behind Arsenal, who have played two more games than their closest competitors, giving City significant control in the race for the title.
Arsenal's attempts at man-marking backfired as City ran riot, and after the game, Silva admitted it was something they were expecting to happen.
“We knew that they could come [playing] man-to-man, and we tried to stretch them as much as possible because if they play man-to-man against us they have to deal with Kevin [De Bruyne] and Erling [Haaland] up front," he said. "It’s never going to be easy in that spot.
“This team was perfect for Kevin because they [defended] man-to-man and gave space to Kevin and Erling to run into,” Silva said. “When you give them this kind of space, they are so difficult to defend [against]. Two beasts running - Kevin with the passes, Erling with the scoring. Today was the opposite.
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“They did it perfectly, they created lots of chances. We could have scored even more. Today we tried to leave them alone [upfield], give them as much space as possible to run and create chances and they did it perfectly.”
Adjusting to play with Haaland has not always been easy for City, despite the Norwegian's record-breaking goalscoring, and it's something Silva admits the team has had to work on.
“We changed the way we play because we never had this kind of player up front,” Silva said. “The manager also changed the build-up a little bit from the past years so maybe it took us a bit of time to get used to it.”
City will have the chance to leapfrog Arsenal in the Premier League table when they travel to face Fulham on Sunday, two days before the Gunners host Chelsea.
Guardiola's side then face West Ham on Wednesday 3 May in their first game in hand, and the two teams will finally level out when City face Brighton three weeks later.
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