Angry Bernardo Silva labels Arsenal game 'unfair' and hits out at Man City 'disrespect' in fresh row

Manchester City midfielder Bernardo Silva did not hold back after their 1-1 draw with Arsenal at the condition they were expected to play in

Bernardo Silva hit out at the 'disrespect' Manchester City were treated with at Arsenal on what he called a bad day for football.

Gabriel Martinelli struck in injury time to earn a draw after Erling Haaland's early strike had looked like earning a big win for Pep Guardiola's side. But they couldn't hold on as Arsenal's substitutes again made their mark, leaving City frustrated at the 'unfair conditions' they were made to play in.

UEFA held the opening week of the Champions League across three nights last week, and the scheduling meant City hosted Napoli at 8pm on Thursday - more than 50 hours after Arsenal had kicked off in Bilbao on Tuesday. Guardiola held his tongue when asked about the schedule, but captain Silva did not after the 1-1 draw.

"I am saying this because we didn’t lose. If we lost, I wouldn’t say this," he said. "But the reality is we cannot come to one of the most important games in the season with such a disadvantage, in terms of rest.

"It is not fair to play one of these games like this. It is just not right.

"They had five days, and we had two and a half days. In one of the most important games, this cannot happen. I wasn’t feeling in a perfect condition to play like this, and people who have not played at the highest level don’t know how it feels to play a game like this.

"They don’t listen to us. It is what it is. We would like to change something. But it never changes. It does not really matter, but for the fans, for the respect of the clubs, and for the fairness of the competition, I don’t think what happened today was good."

Silva's complaints will likely fall on deaf ears, not least because it would require multiple stakeholders in the game to co-operate and at least one of them to compromise. City's trip to Arsenal had already been scheduled for Sunday by Premier League broadcasters when UEFA chose to put out the fixtures as they did in their marquee Champions League week.

It is also a situation that has happened before - Arsenal had basically the reverse before playing at the Etihad last season - and teams who play in the Europa League will frequently play on Sundays after Thursday games. Silva's issue is not that the turnaround was tight, but that it was so clearly to the advantage of one team in what is one of the biggest fixtures in the Premier League calendar.

"The schedule is the schedule and I understand you have different competitions and UEFA, the Premier League, and the broadcasters want to make their money and I understand all those sorts of things," he said.

"We don’t mind playing every three or four days, and we don’t mind playing 60 games because we are used to that. But what we ask for is common sense because this is one of the biggest games of the season.

"And it is not because of us. I don’t think that they are trying to make us lose a game. It could happen to Arsenal or Liverpool in a few months.

"But when you are playing an Arsenal vs City or a City vs Liverpool or Liverpool vs Arsenal, you need to have a bit of common sense, and understanding of these situations and in such an important game, the players need to be in the same physical conditions - otherwise I don’t think it is fair. I know it might have happened to other teams in the past.

"We can lose any game in good conditions or bad conditions, but we need the respect and the common sense to be at the same level to compete.

"Today it did not feel like we were in the same physical condition as them."

"I felt the difference in the first half. If you play at the highest level you know that two days playing against one of the best teams in the league, away, with the travel, you need at least one more day to recover.

"It doesn’t matter if Arsenal had four, five or six days (to recover), just give us one more day, and that gives us three-and-a-half days, and then you make it an even game. Two-and-a-half-days is not enough to recover our bodies and to perform at the highest level. It is just not enough."

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