Manchester City suffered a shock 4-1 defeat to Sporting Lisbon on Tuesday.

Bernardo Silva has claimed Manchester City are in a ‘dark place’ following Tuesday’s defeat to Sporting Lisbon and said the players ‘need to look inside’ to find the solution.

The defeat to Sporting means City have lost three times in seven days and have seen their long-standing unbeaten runs in the Premier League and Champions League come to an end. The Blues lost to Tottenham Hotspur in the Carabao Cup last week and were surprisingly beaten by Bournemouth on Saturday.

Given the form and number of injuries at present, there were a few understandable nerves among fans heading into the game, not least because a motivated Sporting were saying farewell to Ruben Amorim.

Yet City started superbly, took the lead via Phil Foden and dominated possession at the Jose Alvalade Stadium. Reflecting on the game, Silva said: “It’s a weird feeling because I thought we started well, controlling the game, we were creating chances.

“And out of nowhere we go to half-time 1-1. We knew how strong they were on the counter, if we lost easy balls, how strong, how quick they are in creating those kind of chances.”

After conceding from another counter-attack goal, when Viktor Gyokeres broke through and equalised in the 38th minute, City collapsed in the second half. The 2023 European champions were two goals down by the 49th minute and conceded another in the latter stages, while there was a lack of cutting edge to City’s play.

"In the beginning of the second-half we gave them too many opportunities to be there and score goals,” Silva told TNT Sports. “It’s disappointing because we're in a bit of a dark place right now and everything looks to be going in the wrong way.

“Even when we play well we don't score our chances, and we concede too easily. Definitely we need to look inside and check what we're not doing well and start to get better very quickly otherwise it will be difficult to come back from these losses.”

City’s three-game losing run equals their worst under Guardiola. The Catalan has never lost four on the bounce during his time at the Etihad, and Silva admitted he’s cannot remember a situation like this before.

“It's difficult to find reasons for what is happening right now to us,” he said. “I don't remember in seven and a half seasons this team losing three games in a row. It just looks like everything is going in the wrong way right now.

“We need to do better. Our injured players need to come back because we need them. It’s just not good enough at the minute.”