Bernardo Silva: Man City Owe No Prove To Critics

The Sky Blues defended the Premier League title last season as they look to win it for the third time this time around.

However, City are five points behind Liverpool after five games and have started feeling the heat from football followers but Silva insists they are not paying attention to their critics.

"People can criticise and say what they want.

"We don't need to prove anything to anyone, after what we've done the last two seasons. We're relaxed.

"Of course we're not happy, because we want to do better and we know losing against Norwich isn't ideal, but all teams have good and bad moments.

"It's impossible to stay three seasons, only with good moments.

"Sometimes you will have bad moments and it's the way you react to those bad moments that shows and proved how good a team you are and that's what we'll try to do.

"Every time we've had bad moments in the past, we've always reacted well, and that's what we'll try to do again."

With City handed another blow at their centre-back department after John Stones also joined injured Laporte, leaving Nicolas Otamende as the only centre-back option.

Silva believes Fernandinho who filled the void alongside Otamendi in their Champions League opener against Shakhtar Donetsk can help City overcome their double blow.

"We saw last season that Fernandinho's able to play in that position," the Portuguese said. "He's very intelligent and when you understand the game and you're intelligent like he is, it's easy.

"Obviously it's not the ideal situation, because we don't have a lot of centre-backs right now, but it's what we have and we have no complaints.

"In the Premier League, we're five points behind. We want to do better, we want to try to close the gap a little bit, but in the Champions League, it was a great way to start the group stage.

"We want to keep going this way, keep improving and try to win games."