Manchester City captain Bernardo Silva was forthright in his insistence that Liverpool, rather than Arsenal, remain his club’s biggest Premier League rivals “by far” as they managed to take two titles off Pep Guardiola’s side while the Gunners’ wait for top-flight glory drags on.
Silva was a fixture of the imperious City outfit which condemned Arsenal to runners-up finishes across consecutive seasons in 2023 and 2024. Mikel Arteta finally managed to lead his side above his former employers last term only to lose out to Arne Slot’s Liverpool.
The Reds had established themselves as genuine title challengers under Jürgen Klopp before Arsenal joined the fore. Between 2018 and 2022, Liverpool amassed 357 Premier League points while City boasted 358, claiming three titles to Klopp’s solitary triumph in 2020.
Liverpool’s ability to not only keep pace with City but actually surpass them is why Silva is so confident in dismissing Arsenal’s recent surge. “Our biggest rival by far is Liverpool,” he told Sky Sports before City take on the Gunners on Sunday afternoon, “because those are the guys that always competed with us for titles, and they also managed to win titles.
“Then you definitely see a team like Arsenal over the years getting better and better, and being able to start fighting for those titles, even though they haven’t yet reached that level of achieving it.”
Manchester United, who have gotten nowhere near wrestling a title off City since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement 12 years ago, are only rivals due to proximity in Silva’s eyes. “I would say that Manchester United has been going through quite a difficult phase for their club over the last years—it’s a rivalry because we're in the same city,” he shrugged.
“So, the rivalries are quite different, but until now, I would say that our rivals, our big rivals, were always Liverpool.”
Despite not earning City’s respect as a main contender, Arsenal delivered a nut-and-bolt dismantling of Guardiola’s side when they last faced off at the Emirates. The Gunners romped to a 5–1 win which Silva admitted “was a really bad time for us.”
Rodri, Silva’s midfield colleague at City, had that clash at the forefront of his mind heading into Sunday’s rematch in north London. “Now we have a bit of revenge for Arsenal, because we were in a bad moment and they took advantage of that,” he warned.
“And yeah, we want to make them feel that we are not that team again, and we’re going to compete and try to beat them at home.”
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as ‘By Far’—Man City Captain Takes Swipe at Arsenal Ahead of Premier League Clash.