Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher agree on ‘sensational’ Man City star Pep Guardiola was ‘scared to lose’

Manchester City painted Old Trafford blue on Sunday after cruising past their rivals to claim the Premier League Manchester Derby bragging rights.

Erling Haaland commanded the spotlight by contributing two goals and an assist in his side’s 3-0 win. However, despite the Norwegian goal machine hitting top form once again, it was Bernardo Silva who received the bulk of the praise as he was handed the Player of the Match award.

The pundits in the Sky Sports studio waxed lyrical about the Portugal international, with Jamie Carragher admitting he is up there as one Pep Guardiola’s best signings during his tenure with City.

“He’s been an outstanding player but the funny thing is, it feels like every summer there’s always talk that he might go, but you know how desperate City are to keep him because I think any team in world football would love to have him,” the former Liverpool defender said on Super Sunday. “He’s been one of the best signings Pep has made in his time.”

Gary Neville echoed the sentiment, describing Silva as ‘sensational’ and praising him for ‘glueing everything together’ during the Manchester Derby.

Indeed, as well as bagging an assist, Silva created three big goalscoring chances, completed 100 percent of his attempted dribbles and 90 percent of his passes. The 29-year-old also tallied five out of six successful long balls and won five of his eight attempted ground duels, as per Sofascore.

Guardiola was naturally delighted with his player’s Man of the Match performance and took some time to sing Silva’s praises in his interview with Sky Sports, while admitting the team were ‘scared to lose him’ during the summer exit rumours.

“He’s a player that is beyond good in all departments. We are in love with him.” Guardiola laughed, while also praising the versatile attacker for being ‘humble.’

City take their three points and look ahead to hosting Bournemouth at the Etihad on Saturday. Meanwhile, United have a blockbuster midweek clash in the Carabao Cup against Newcastle coming up fast.