Bernardo Silva takes his rightful place at the top of the Dream Team midfield rankings
PEP GUARDIOLA’S claim that Bernardo Silva (£3.5m) is the best player in the Premier League on current form was bolstered by the Portuguese midfielder’s brace against Watford.
It’s still impossible to look past Mohamed Salah (£8.3m) of course but it’s nice to have another name in the conversation at least.
Manchester City’s No20 scored his sixth and seventh goals at the weekend and deservedly bagged the Star Man award for an 18-point haul in total.
As a result, Bernardo has taken his rightful place at the top of the midfield rankings as he’s now level with team-mate Riyad Mahrez (£5.7m) on 89 points.
With all due respect to the Algerian, 38 of his points came from two outings against Wycombe and Club Brugge – he’s only produced three points in his last six domestic games.
And it’s these stats that gave Mahrez something of a false position at the top of the rankings in his position – as they were indicative of unsustainable success.
In contrast, Bernardo has only blanked once since Game Week 10, taking 51 points from games against Man United, Everton, PSG, Aston Villa and the Hornets.
The 27-year-old has scored seven goals in 14 league games this term which is a huge increase in output compared to the last two seasons when he scored eight goals in 60 appearances.
Stats only tell a portion of the story as Bernardo has passed the eye test with flying colours this season.
Silky dribbling, immense technique, relentless intensity when out of possession; in many ways he’s the archetypal modern midfielder.
There is a humorous element to this narrative as well because all of the relevant parties will admit that there were some efforts to engineer a transfer away from the Etihad in the summer.
Naturally, that chat has been suppressed now Bernardo is spearheading Man City’s title defence – Guardiola’s side are top of the table after Chelsea’s defeat to West Ham.
More importantly, Bernardo is pretty much a must-have Dream Team asset these days.
With a current price of £3.5m (expect that to rise again on Friday) he has to be considered a bargain and his ownership of 22.4% is only heading one way.
The 77.6% of Dream Team bosses currently without the leading midfielder in their XI seriously need to have a look at themselves.