City ‘needed’ to beat Liverpool to keep title race alive: Silva

Manchester City captain Bernardo Silva said anything other than victory at Liverpool would have meant that the Premier League title race was all but over after Pep Guardiola’s men snatched a dramatic 2-1 win at Anfield.

The visitors were set to fall nine points behind leaders Arsenal as they trailed to Dominik Szoboszlai’s stunning free-kick late on. But Silva’s equaliser on 84 minutes sparked a crazy finale.

Erling Haaland put City in front three minutes into stoppage time but there was still more chaos and controversy to come.

Gianluigi Donnarumma produced an incredible save to deny Alexis Mac Allister an equaliser.

Rayan Cherki thought he had sealed victory by rolling into an empty net from the halfway line as Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson Becker went forward chasing a leveller.

However, the goal was ruled out after Szoboszlai pulled Haaland back before the Norwegian retaliated in similar fashion.

Szoboszlai was instead shown a red card for committing the first offence.

“For the distance that we have to Arsenal, coming here it is the toughest place in the Premier League by far,” said Silva.

“I feel the whole team knew before the game, if we lost it then the title race was probably over. We felt like we needed to win.

“The hope is there and we are going to fight until the end. We need to keep doing our job that we haven’t lately.”

Victory is City’s first in front of a crowd away to Liverpool since 2003 as they completed a league double over the Reds for the first time since 1937.

“Very happy, but these points count as much as any in any other game,” added Silva.

“It has been frustrating the beginning of the year because we have not done our job properly. We could be closer to Arsenal.”

Meanwhile, Haaland said tiredness was no excuse for his poor goalscoring run in 2026 as he demands more of himself to keep Manchester City in the hunt for four trophies.

Haaland scored a dramatic stoppage-time winner from the penalty spot as City beat Liverpool 2-1 on Sunday to remain six points behind Arsenal in the Premier League title race.

The 25-year-old has netted 28 times in 36 games for City this season.

But he has not scored from open play in the Premier League since December 20 and has just three goals in his last 13 appearances.

“Of course, I haven’t scored enough goals since the start of this year and I know that I need to improve,” said the Norwegian.

“I know I need to be more sharp, better at all of this, and this is something that I have to work on.

“I have to keep going because this is what everyone deserves and expects.”

Pep Guardiola said last month that Haaland was “exhausted” by a gruelling schedule with City still involved in four competitions.

Guardiola’s men will face Arsenal in the League Cup final next month, are into the last 16 of the Champions League, and face fourth-tier Salford in the fourth round of the FA Cup.

“I don’t want to speak about why I haven’t performed. I don’t think there’s any excuse. Fatigue is a lot in the head,” added Haaland.

“It’s a lot of games. Look at the schedule, it’s not easy and for me, it’s about staying fit, that’s the most important thing, and trying to be ready to help the team.”

City looked set to fall nine points behind Arsenal at the top of the table until a chaotic finale at Anfield. The visitors trailed to Dominik Szoboszlai’s brilliant free-kick with just six minutes of normal time remaining until Haaland teed up Bernardo Silva to level.

Haaland then kept his cool in a frenzied atmosphere from the spot to rekindle City’s hopes in the title race.

They can ramp up the pressure even more on Arsenal with victory over Fulham on Wednesday to halve the deficit at the top before the Gunners face Brentford 24 hours later.

“We’ve seen before that the title race is not over until it’s over,” said Haaland.

“Right now I need to focus on Fulham because there’s still many games (to go).”

Agencies