5 Manchester City players who must step up in the absence of Kevin de Bruyne

#3 Bernardo Silva

Bernardo started just 15 Premier League games last season

Manchester City paid Monaco £43 million for the services of Bernardo last summer, and we probably didn’t see the best of him last season. He probably suffered as a result of the quality of the other players in the squad, rather than his own shortcomings. In the end, he started just 15 Premier League games, but made 20 appearances from the bench.

There is no doubt he is a fabulous player though and will be hoping to take this opportunity to prove that he is capable of performing in the Premier League on a consistent basis. He has a very similar playing style to de Bruyne, so is probably the natural like-for-like replacement for the Belgian. He showed with his performance on the opening day against Arsenal how good he really is, and he will be expecting the chance to do so again in the coming months.