Bernardo Silva makes surprise Arsenal admission amid Liverpool and Man City title race

Manchester City midfielder Bernardo Silva has conceded Liverpool and Arsenal are the two favourites to win the Premier League.

Silva joined the Cityzens in 2017 and has experienced just two seasons where he has failed to secure the title in Pep Guardiola's squad. Liverpool pipped City to the title in 2020 and finished 10 points ahead of the Gunners to win it in Arne Slot's debut campaign last season.

Following their dominance of English football for such an extended period, City suffered through an inconsistent campaign last year, but still managed to finish in third, just three points behind the north Londoners. City's title aspirations have been dented by a disappointing 2-0 home loss to Tottenham and a frustrating 2-1 away setback to Brighton and Hove Albion.

Given their opening to the season and the impressive displays Mikel Arteta and Slot's outfit have delivered this term, Silva believes his squad are not the frontrunners to claim the Premier League.

The Portuguese midfielder told the official Manchester City website: "I would say that Liverpool and Arsenal are the favourites but, it's the beginning and last season everyone said Manchester City were the favourites.

"Last season the favourites were Manchester City and Arsenal. Liverpool were not a favourite and they won the Premier League. In the beginning you can't do a lot of maths.

"Of course, we can speak for our team and say that our level is still not where we want it to be, but we know that if we reach that level, not a lot of teams can stop us.

"Until February you cannot win the Premier League, but you can lose it. What we want is to come back to our level and get our level back to where we want it to be."

City strengthened their squad this summer with the acquisitions of Tijjani Reijnders, Rayan Ait-Nouri, Rayan Cherki, James Trafford and Gianluigi Donnarumma, who cost a combined total of approximately £170million.

They also splashed out £175m during the January transfer window, which witnessed the arrivals of Omar Marmoush, Nico Gonzalez, Abdukodir Khusanov and Vitor Reis.

Nevertheless, Liverpool's expenditure this summer exceeded both of City's windows put together, with Alexander Isak, Florian Wirtz, Hugo Ekitike, Milos Kerkez, Jeremie Frimpong and Giovanni Leoni joining for roughly £446m. Refusing to be outdone, Arsenal also committed substantial funds to secure the likes of Viktor Gyokeres, Eberechi Eze, Noni Madueke and numerous others.

City have a chance to deliver a massive blow to Arsenal's Premier League ambitions this campaign. They make the trip to the Emirates Stadium on Sunday as they attempt to thrust themselves back into the title race.

The Gunners have already suffered a 1-0 reverse to Liverpool this season and another loss to a fellow title challenger would represent a devastating setback. Mikel Arteta's men currently sit second, but defeat to City combined with other unfavourable results could witness the Gunners tumble out of the top four.

Story Saved

You can find this story in  My Bookmarks.Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right.