Jack Grealish and Kevin De Bruyne have revitalised ‘struggling’ Man City player says Paul Merson

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Manchester City won their first match since October on Wednesday night with a 3-0 victory over Nottingham Forest.

In their seven matches leading up to this game, City had lost six and drawn one.

After seeing the Blues lose their fourth Premier League game in a row against Liverpool, Jamie Carragher said City were out of the title race as a result of the “mini-crisis” they found themselves in throughout November.

Following on from their midweek win over Nuno Espirito Santo’s side, a pundit has claimed that two figures in the City team ended up bringing out the best of another player in Pep Guardiola’s side on Wednesday after a poor run of individual form.

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Paul Merson says Man City duo reinvigorated Bernardo Silva against Forest

In his latest column for Sportskeeda, Paul Merson said this about the impact Jack Grealish and Kevin De Bruyne had on Bernardo Silva’s performance against Forest.

He said: “Jack Grealish and Kevin De Bruyne returned to the City line-up for the clash against Forest and it automatically made Bernardo Silva a better player!

“In all honesty, Silva was struggling in recent games and it looked like a knock-on effect of them players returning to the team.” 

How did Silva fare against Forest?

Starting on the right wing with Grealish and De Bruyne in more central roles, Silva bagged his first league goal of the season just eight minutes into the Forest game, with the Belgian getting the assist.

Completing the full 90 minutes, the Portuguese international made two key passes and created one big chance for his side as well as completing two of the three dribbles he attempted.

Then from a defensive point of view, Silva also helped his side keep just their third league clean sheet of the campaign by making one clearance, tackle and interception.

This display ultimately earned the midfielder an overall match rating of 8/10 from SofaScore, making him the third-highest-rated City player on the night behind De Bruyne (8.9/10) and Jeremy Doku (8.8/10).

Now that Merson has highlighted how much better Silva looked with having De Bruyne and Grealish in midfield, this set-up could be something Guardiola continues to implement across City’s upcoming December fixtures.