Man City star Bernardo Silva takes aim at Arsenal with brutal Liverpool comparison

Bernardo Silva has slammed Arsenal's approach to Sunday's Premier League game with Manchester City - and claimed the club have a more competitive rivalry with Liverpool. John Stones' 98th-minute equaliser rescued a point for Pep Guardiola's side late on at the Etihad after Arsenal had taken a 2-1 lead on the stroke of half-time.

ut after being reduced to ten men just seconds after Gabriel had headed the visitors ahead as Leandro Trossard was shown a second yellow card by referee Michael Oliver, the Gunners employed several dark art tactics in the hope of securing a first Premier League win at the Etihad since 2015.

Such antics, though, left Silva - who knows what he takes to win the Premier League having done so six times since 2017 - far from impressed as he launched a scathing assessment of the visitors' style of play after goals from Erling Haaland, Riccardo Calafiori, Gabriel and Stones saw the points shared in East Manchester.

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"There was only one team that came to play football. The other came to play to the limits of what was possible to do and allowed by the referee, unfortunately. But at the end we got a draw, the best we could get considering the context of the last moments of the match," said the midfielder.

"We're not happy as we wanted the three points, but personally I'm happy with the way we came to play and faced the game. I'm glad we always enter the pitch to try to win every match."

"It all started in the very first second. In the first action we realised what was going to happen. We had a player injured after they sent him to the ground twice in 10 minutes. We had a goal conceded after the referee called our captain and then didn't allow him to recover his position. The second goal is already their usual block to our keeper, which was allowed by the referee.

"Then the referee allowed a sequence of time-wasting events. The thing that bothers me the most is having a lot of meetings with the FA at the beginning of each season. They tell us they will control this kind of situation and will stop them, but in the end it doesn't have any worth. They say a lot but nothing happens."

And the midfielder wasn't done there as ,before departing the Etihad, he made time to take aim at Arsenal's lack of success since Mikel Arteta took over as manager in December 2019, hinting that the North Londoners don't have the same mentality as Liverpool, who were involved in three extraordinary title races with City between 2019 and 2022.

"The difference? I don't know. Maybe that Liverpool have already won the Premier League, Arsenal haven't. That Liverpool have won the Champions League, Arsenal haven't," added Silva. "Liverpool always faced us face to face to try to win the games, so from this perspective the games against Arsenal haven't been like the ones we had and have against Liverpool. So yes, maybe a different rivalry."