Man City still better placed than Reds in ‘exciting’ title race – Bernardo Silva

Bernardo Silva believes Manchester City are still best-placed to retain their Premier League crown despite a disappointing draw at Crystal Palace offering Liverpool hope.

City have been as many as 14 points clear of Liverpool this season, albeit skewed by the different number of matches played, but are now just four ahead of their closest challengers having also played a game more.

Pep Guardiola’s side failed to find a way past Palace on Monday night, having to settle for a 0-0 stalemate at Selhurst Park.

Both Kevin De Bruyne and Joao Cancelo hit the woodwork but the visitors were largely wasteful and could be just a single point clear if Liverpool win their game in hand away to Arsenal on Wednesday night.

That could mean Jurgen Klopp’s side head to the Etihad Stadium on April 10 knowing victory would see them take over as league leaders – but Silva knows there is still plenty of football to be played.

“We were actually good, but unfortunately we couldn’t score,” he told City+

“It was a very frustrating game. Still a long way to go. It’s still better to be in our position than Liverpool’s, they still have to come and play in our stadium. It’s exciting.

“A draw is very disappointing for us, but there is a long way to go.

“It is always better to win than to draw. We wanted to win. We wanted the six-point advantage over Liverpool. They now play Arsenal.

“There are nine games to go. We’re going to be there – we’re going to fight as usual for the title.”

While it was a frustrating night for City, Palace once again revelled in the challenge of facing the reigning champions.

Eagles boss Patrick Vieira got one over his former club with a win in Manchester earlier in the season and made it four points out of a possible six following this battling draw.

Palace full-back Nathaniel Clyne revealed what Vieira’s game plan had been to once again frustrate City.

“He just said to play with energy,” Clyne said.

“Get in their faces, don’t make it easy and put our foot in the tackle. When we do have the ball let’s play it quick and play our pace up front to get into areas where we can make it dangerous.

“The tactics we lined up with, we made it difficult for them. We hit them well on the counter-attack and looked dangerous on the counter-attack, especially with the pace we have up front.

“We defended solid, kept our unit tight and together and, as I said, fully deserved the draw.

“Considering it was against the champions I think we did really well. We defended ever so good and frustrated them to limited chances and I think we fully deserved a draw.”