Bernardo Silva joins exclusive Pep Guardiola club to highlight Man City's brilliance

Manchester City sent a statement of intent in the Champions League this week, scoring five goals without reply against Sporting CP in Lisbon to all but guarantee a place in the quarter-finals of the competition.

City's litany of attacking talents was at their very best at the Estadio Jose Alvalade, but there was no doubting who stole the limelight.

Bernardo Silva ran riot against the arch-rivals of his boyhood club Benfica, scoring two goals to earn boos and whistles from the home crowd. His first of the night was a goal of the season contender. An extraordinary half-volley that crashed in off the underside of the crossbar after 17 minutes.

Bernardo was rightly named the player of the match by UEFA, and in his post-match press conference, Pep Guardiola did not hold back in his praise of the Portugal star.

"He doesn't just play football. He understands the game," Guardiola said. "There are players that play good with the ball, but he understands every action like few in the world.

"I always tell him, 'you are the perfect player'."

If one of the greatest managers in the history of the game is telling Bernardo that he is the perfect player, then that is a pretty good indication of his development since joining City from AS Monaco in 2017.

But we all know how good Bernardo is, don't we? Unless you have been living under a rock, then it has been clear for all to see that he has been one of the Premier League's best players this season.

Guardiola's praise of Bernardo's understanding of the game has interested me. Guardiola's system is an incredibly complex one, where individual players must be able to perform different roles and movements at the drop of a hat, as opposed to going into a game with one brief and just sticking to