Bernardo Silva admits Man City squad’s title race concern about Arsenal this season

Bernardo Silva has pointed out that Manchester City being 5 points behind Arsenal in the Premier League title race is a cause for concern.

The dressing room mood was revealed by Bernardo Silva, who said even Liverpool and Chelsea shouldn’t be ruled out of the title race despite sitting 15 and 16 points behind Arsenal respectively.

City go into a testing New Year schedule hoping to keep in touch with Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal, while also trying to hold off a stubborn Newcastle side in third and their other ‘Big Six’ rivals in Tottenham and Manchester United.

While Man City have chased down major leads in previous season to eventually triumph, it is tough to spot where Arsenal end up dropping points.

Despite Gabriel Jesus’ absence, it was business as usual for Mikel Arteta’s men who returned to club football unscathed with a 3-1 win against West Ham.

Bernardo has discussed that concern of having five points to make up on Arteta’s pace-setters, adding that City must also look over their shoulder as well as on Arsenal.

“No sense of panic but there is a concern that we’re five points behind a rival,” he continued. “We’re not happy because we cannot make more mistakes. Arsenal they can make mistakes, because even if they drop two points they’ll be in the race with us, and other teams.

“But if we drop more points maybe Newcastle will go past us, United will go past us, Tottenham will go past us. Arsenal will keep running and it won’t be easy to go after them. No panic, but definitely motivation and a lot of focus to not let them go further away from us.

“Some teams are already quite, quite far behind Arsenal, I don’t know exactly how many points Liverpool are behind Arsenal but I think it’s around 15. That gap is not easy to recover, but it’s possible. Then United is closer, Tottenham is closer. Chelsea is far away so it’s not going to be easy for them as well.

“It’s the Premier League. Two or three games if Arsenal start dropping points then we’re right there with them and Liverpool are right there with us as well because they’re not that far away from us. We haven’t got to the health of the Premier League, so everything can still happen. Knowing that the teams who are 15 or more points behind it’s quite a big gap so it’s not easy for them.”