Manchester City look for Bernardo Silva to hit the heights

 Manchester City host struggling Southampton in Premier League on Saturday with Pep Guardiola hoping that Bernardo Silva maintains his recent return to something approaching peak of his powers. Portuguese playmaker Silva was among most feared players in Premier League last season as City won all three domestic trophies. 25-year-old helped City supporters forget a long-term injury to Kevin De Bruyne, scoring 13 goals and adding 14 assists as his side re-wrote English football record books.

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Man City's season so far

opening months of new season have painted a very different picture for Silva and City, however, t least after he found himself embroiled in a racism controversy. Silva has been charged with misconduct by FA after posting a picture of teammate Benjamin Mendy next to a mascot for a Spanish snack brand which invited accusations that he was guilty of racial stereotyping. issue became even more complex when Guardiola and City star Raheem Sterling made impassioned verbal defences of player, who could face a suspension when his case is heard by an independent regulatory commission. And reports, citing sources close to Silva, have claimed that articulate Portuguese, who is fluent in English, has been adversely affected by controversy and accusations. That has certainly appeared to be case when comparing his form with that of last season, although return of De Bruyne, and some influential cameos from a rejuvenated David Silva, have reduced pressure on Bernardo to be quite so dominant.

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Unequivocal defence 

Indeed, Bernardo has only started six of City's 10 league games to date, with De Bruyne and Silva both making two more starts than ir team-mate. That has been due, in part, to Guardiola opting to reduce his early-season workload after Bernardo starred for Portugal in Nations League this summer. Twelve months earlier, City manr requested Bernardo cut short his break after World Cup in Russia to return to Manchester in readiness for start of a campaign in which his form never dipped. But, after 12 months of n-stop football, it appeared that Guardiola decided to use his asset more sparingly at start of this season, with Portuguese star's form dropping off accordingly. one glaring exception to that was recent 8-0 win over Watford, in which Bernardo scored a hat-trick, and, given fact that Southampton followed last week's 9-0 home defeat by Leicester with a 3-1 League Cup reverse at City on Tuesday, he will relish chance to face such out-of-form opposition once more.

Guardiola, whose side are six points behind leaders Liverpool, was criticised for his unequivocal defence of Bernardo in wake of racism controversy and will hope his support is rewarded in long-term. Meanwhile, Saints boss Ralph Hasenhuttl is well aware of threat posed by City, but he believes humiliation against Leicester has refocused his players' minds. "After 9-0 re is more discussion necessary. Everybody kws that in that way it cant continue. And you could see that on Tuesday, it was a much better performance," he said."I think it was longest distance we covered this season, so this was exactly reaction I wanted to see from my team. This was absolutely positive. y really invest a lot and to defend against such a team you need to invest to cover a lot of distance." Guardiola will check on fitness of back-up left-back Angeli, who limped out of cup tie with what looked like an ankle problem. With Oleksandr Zinchenko a long-term injury absentee, French international Benjamin Mendy is City's only specialist left-back as Guardiola contends with a long injury list in his defensive positions.

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