Man City and Bernardo Silva put Arsenal, Liverpool on high alert،
MANCHESTER, England – Manchester City are heading into the home stretch of the Premier League title race after the international break, and the ease of their FA Cup quarter-final win over Newcastle United should be enough to worry Arsenal and Liverpool .
City won 2-0 at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday to claim a sixth successive FA Cup semi-final and prepare in the best possible way for the visit of Arsenal on March 31. Once again, Pep Guardiola's side are accelerating their quest for the trophy at the right time. That's now 22 games unbeaten in all competitions and, in fact, Newcastle have never come close to becoming the first visiting team to win at the Etihad since November 2022.
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Two Bernardo Silva goals before half-time – both deflected but still deserved – made for a comfortable evening, and it was the kind of calm, composed performance that could make Mikel Arteta and Jurgen Klopp wince at the thought of the battle to come. .
Newcastle are dealing with injuries to key players such as Kieran Trippier, but a team playing in the Champions League before Christmas was still expertly dismissed as if they were a lower league team just happy to be here.
“We always expect the best for the team,” Guardiola said. “We won the treble, five titles and coming back from the last international break, over the last two months, to be in contention means a lot.
“This club has something special. It's incredible. I know we are playing to win the final, but to win it you have to win the previous rounds. We have won four Carabao Cup finals in a row and now we We are in six FA Cup semi-finals in a row. To run and play like they did is incredible. Congratulations to the team, no one has done that before.
“We played very well, we were very safe with the ball. Mateo [Kovacic], Rodri and Bernardo kept the ball so well. The match was really good,” added Guardiola.
It's hard to overestimate the relentlessness of this City team. Against Liverpool at Anfield, it was John Stones who scored a vital goal. A week earlier against Manchester United, it was Phil Foden who led the match by scoring twice.
This time, it was Bernardo, without a goal for more than a month before the start of the match, who made the difference. His two first-half goals were so deflected that he looked a little sheepish during the celebrations, but the Portuguese midfielder was praised for repeatedly finding space on the right edge of the penalty area more than in the finishes.
City have coped admirably with the departures of David Silva, Sergio Aguero, Vincent Kompany and Ilkay Gündogan over the years, but Guardiola may find Bernardo the hardest of all to replace. With an accessible release clause of around £50 million added to the contract extension he signed last summer, City expect strong interest from Paris Saint-Germain ahead of next season , but as long as he is here, Silva will remain the player Guardiola trusts more than anyone else in the squad. big games.
It says everything about Silva's class against Newcastle that Kevin De Bruyne, nursing a groin injury, was narrowly missed. “Everyone loves him and we want him, even if the goals are deflections,” Guardiola said.
“It's important that he stays with us. Kevin will be back soon but when you see the schedule – Arsenal, Aston Villa, Crystal Palace, Real Madrid – it's really hard and we need everyone. J I've said many times how important Bernardo is.”
Afterward, Newcastle manager Eddie Howe had to bemoan the “football gods working against us” in reference to Silva's two lucky goals, but this ignored the fact that Newcastle had been restricted to just two shots over the course of the 90 minutes and only one target. Chasing a first trophy since 1955, Howe, who tried something different by switching to a five at the back, admitted his team “hadn't been good enough”.
“Goals are difficult to take, especially the first, which was a big deflection and flew into the top corner,” he added.
“I don't know what to say. The guys gave everything. It's very difficult to play against Man City at any time, but especially when they pick these technical players. I thought we did well, we stayed there and We sometimes destabilized them.
In reality, though, it was another game that showed City's ability to squeeze the life out of their opponents, and the fear for Liverpool and Arsenal is that City could squeeze the life out of the title race after the international break.
Guardiola faces a nervous wait to see how many of his players return unscathed from their national teams ahead of Arsenal's visit to the Etihad in the Premier League's return, and it may take an unexpected injury to do derail what seems, at first glance. this, like a charge towards another acute.
