Bernardo Silva has warned his Manchester City team-mates they cannot allow their season to go up in smoke over the next fortnight.
Pep Guardiola’s side have five crucial fixtures in all four competitions before the international break – starting at Newcastle United in the FA Cup as they bid to bounce back from Wednesday’s draw with Nottingham Forest.
That put Arsenal seven points clear in the title race, with City’s only game in the Premier League before April 12 coming a week on Saturday at West Ham United.
Two legs with perennial Champions League knockout opponents Real Madrid sandwich the trip to East London and City face Arsenal in the Carabao Cup final on March 22.
‘In these few weeks we’re not going to win a lot, but we can lose a lot,’ Silva said. ‘This month can keep us alive to fight for the competitions until the end, or it can put us down and we just go for one or two competitions. Hopefully, we will still be in all four of them in a month’s time.’
Silva was agitated by a lapse in defensive concentration that allowed Elliot Anderson – admired by City ahead of the summer – to bend in an equaliser for Forest on Wednesday.
Bernardo Silva (right) issued a warning to his Man City team-mates ahead of a crucial period
The City captain believes those frailties are too common and the reason why they now need Arsenal to slip up if they are to win a seventh title under Guardiola.
‘It definitely puts us in a worse position,’ he added. ‘Still nine games to go for us, which is a long way. We’re not happy, obviously. We wanted to be closer to put a bit more pressure on them.
‘This feels a bit frustrating and worse for us. If we look at the games that we have, it’s going to be a tough job.
‘It’s for us to control better these moments. It’s on us that we didn’t win, that we conceded the goal in the last minute against Chelsea, for example, at home, that we didn’t win against Brighton at home.
‘Or that we were winning 2-0 against Tottenham away and we let them come back into that game. Forest again twice we were leading and we let them come back. So that’s all on us.
‘But we’re still in four competitions so there’s no point in looking back now and crying, we need to go for the next game and hopefully continue fighting for all the titles, which is our main goal.’
