Manchester City's stars have aligned and are showing that their midfield unit is now second only to Real Madrid's

City's midfield core, which already boosted Kevin de Bruyne and David Silva, has been enhanced by the addition of Bernardo Silva

The two Silvas in action for Manchester City against Everton (Getty)

It was not obvious at the end of last season that Manchester City needed another creative midfielder to add to Pep Guardiola’s personal collection. But who could argue now that the addition of Bernardo Silva to David Silva and Kevin de Bruyne has given City another level to their play?

David Silva and De Bruyne were the two halves of City’s brain last season, running the show in the side’s best moments. And now in Bernardo City have a third man to capable of doing this, not just to stand in for the original two but to accompany them.

Only Real Madrid, with Luka Modric, Toni Kroos and Isco, and three European Cups in four years, can be said to have a better collection of attacking midfielders than City now do.

At Feyenoord on Wednesday, as at Bournemouth on 26 August, Guardiola found a way to play all three of his together, as Bernardo played on the right of the narrow front three. He led the pressing from the front, with which Guardiola was delighted, and dropped back into midfield as City hogged possession. When David Silva was taken off in the second half, Bernardo played in midfield full-time and looked just as comfortable there as his namesake.

Bernardo shares so much with Silva and De Bruyne: their touch, vision and instinctive understanding of what Guardiola wants, and spoke afterwards about what a natural fit it was with his new team-mates.

“Personally it’s a pleasure to play alongside these players,” Bernardo said afterwards. “I am learning a lot from them, I hope I can learn much more. It’s easy when you are playing with quality players, with intelligent players like them. So it’s much easier and much better to play alongside them. They are some of the best players in the world.”

This has been another great week for De Bruyne, who set up two of City’s goals against Liverpool on Saturday and another, for John Stones, on Wednesday night. He is in the form of his life, running games, showing the mixture of vision and athleticism which prompted City to spend £55m on him in 2015. Guardiola went as far as to call De Bruyne “one of the best players I have ever seen in my life” on Wednesday night, referring to his versatility, his ability to “make absolute everything”.

Bernardo Silva has brought greater strength to City's midfield (Getty)

That intelligence and sight of the pitch is why De Bruyne’s first professional coach Hein Vanhaezebrouck compared him to Guardiola’s hero and mentor Johann Cruyff. “Kevin is the guy who will see the whole pitch,” Vanhaezebrouck told The Independent. “Kevin resembles Cruyff, who is really seeing everything.”

Bernardo Silva was almost as effusive talking about De Bruyne on Wednesday night. “His decisions are always good and he is very intelligent on the pitch,” Silva said. “Intelligent players can play different roles, and that is what he does perfectly. When the coach asks him to play on the right side, the left side, as an offensive midfielder, a more defensive midfielder, to cause attacks, to finish. He is a very intelligent player, and it is a pleasure to have him with us.”

De Bruyne spent much of last season moving around, playing out on the right, and even spent one game at left wing-back. Bernardo Silva is likely to prove just as moveable: he started off as a number 10, played on the right wing at times for Monaco and for Portugal and has even played on the left, too, although he does not enjoy it as much.

De Bruyne has received wide praise from his manager and team-mates (Getty)

Only David Silva does not tend to move from the middle of the pitch, but after seven years at City and so many trophies he has earned that right. The hope is that one day Bernardo will be able to replace David as City’s creative force and technical leader on the pitch.

“I hope I can have the same career and longevity that David has had here,” Bernardo said in an interview with The Independent last week. “Because David has won so many things during his career: the World Cup, the European Championship, the Premier League twice, the FA Cup, League Cup. So if you tell me that I will do as well as he has done I will be happy of course.”