Rayan Cherki had added a goal in the biggest game of the Premier League season to a pair of assists at Stamford Bridge last week. The maverick with the magical touch has shown a productivity. He has a showman’s trickery but he has also made the second most goals in the top flight. He can be framed as the difference-maker, in part because, in a division dominated by set-pieces, few have his creativity in open play, or his joie de vivre.
And yet when Pep Guardiola was asked if his bargain of a signing should be named player of the year, he scoffed. “Come, come,” he said. “He’s so young.” If Guardiola had a vote, either for the PFA or Football Writers’ Association awards, it is safe to say it would be cast for Bernardo Silva. Not just this season, either, as Silva is his man for all seasons. He is his favourite.
Manchester City’s 2-1 win over Arsenal underlined why. It had a certain similarity with what may prove the other most significant result of their Premier League campaign. When they beat Liverpool 2-1 at Anfield, Silva was the best player on the pitch. Ten weeks later, some 30 miles further east, the scoreline was the same. So, too, was the significance of Silva.
He scored at Anfield. Against Arsenal, he was defined by his defensive contributions. There was the injury-time tackle on Martin Odegaard, just outside the penalty area. When he ended up isolated against Kai Havertz, the Arsenal striker with a clear run at goal, it was a scenario where City would have wanted prime Kyle Walker, with blistering speed, not an ageing midfielder. But Silva got to the ball and the German ended up handling it in his attempt to get past him. There was an intervention in his own box when he beat the rather taller Viktor Gyokeres that prompted Erling Haaland, in a colourful comparison and choice of vocabulary to compare him to a Ballon d’Or-winning defender. “When he headed that cross away, I told him, ‘You were like f***ing Cannavaro,’” said the match-winner.
Fabio Cannvaro was not the tallest but won a disproportionate number of headers. Silva is smaller still, but a player of great stature. It is why Guardiola, who has spent the best part of two decades managing the very good and the great, gets more sentimental about Silva than almost anyone else.
“When you write the legend you have to write with the capital letter; not for today, for every single game over nine years,” he said. It referenced Silva’s impending departure. As Guardiola had said a couple of days earlier, part of him will leave with the midfielder; perhaps the fear for City is that a manager with one year left on his contract will decide all of him leaves with Silva. Parting will have a difficulty for him. “Just gratitude,” he said. “If I talk a lot, one day I will cry. Where he goes the team will be so lucky to have him.”
For now, Silva has helped City to prosper despite the loss of his long-time sidekicks, in Ilkay Gundogan and Kevin De Bruyne. If Cherki has helped replace the Belgian, Silva has taken on some of Gundogan’s duties. For a long time, he was the player with the midfielder’s skillset who often played off the right wing, and sometimes even as a false nine.
A transformative element in City’s season was moving him deeper in midfield, enabling him to influence every aspect of the game. It benefited Rodri, who may have less mobility now, who had sometimes struggled when on his own. Silva reads the game in a way few can. “He's not the fastest or the quickest but knows what every single action requires,” said Guardiola. He has a further attribute, which may seem still more vital now Rodri may face a spell on the sidelines. “He is never injured,” noted Guardiola. This was Silva’s 45th appearance of the season; he has played at least 45 in each of the last nine years, at least 49 in seven. It was his 452nd game for City, taking him past Mike Summerbee in the all-time chart.
The last may see him lift the Premier League trophy. It would be a fitting farewell. Silva could become City’s third treble-winning skipper, after Vincent Kompany and Gundogan. He probably won’t add the individual honours. There is a campaign on the other side of Manchester for Bruno Fernandes. Declan Rice may be the most likely winner. Such votes as go the way of City players could be split: some for Haaland, some for Cherki, maybe even the odd one for Nico O’Reilly. Silva came third in the PFA vote in 2018-19, arguably his finest campaign. But too much of his work is unselfish and understated to garner such accolades; he would score more if he put himself first. And in a season when there may not be a dominant candidate to be named Footballer of the Year, there might be a no more deserving choice than Silva.
