After a quiet start to his City career while he adapted to life in a new club, new league and new country after his move from Monaco in the summer of 2017, Bernardo blossomed in the second half of last season.
He went on to make more appearances than any other player in City’s record-breaking campaign, emerging as a key part of the squad that won both the Premier League and Carabao Cup.
Fresh from impressing with Portugal at the World Cup finals over the summer, Bernardo has carried on from where he left off, starting the 2018/19 season in imperious form, with his stunning display in Saturday’s 3-0 league win over Fulham just the latest in a series of man-of-the-match displays.
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And the 24-year-old believes that now he is familiar with life at City and with the demands of the Premier League, his form will only continue to improve.
Said Bernardo: “The second season is always easier than the first one.
“When you change it’s always more difficult - you have to adapt to the way your team plays, you have to adapt to your team-mates, to the league, to the referees.
“Obviously I have more confidence, I feel better with the team and I hope I can do better than last season.
“I’m happy because I’m helping the team and that I’m feeling well, I just hope that I can continue this way.
“I can play either in the centre or wide, I can do whatever the manager thinks is best for the team. It depends on the games, I feel comfortable both ways.
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“It was a great start for them (Chelsea and Liverpool), for us as well even though we drew one game.
“It’s still the beginning, a lot of games to play, we’ll see what happens but we want to try and win the Premier League.”
Saturday’s hugely impressive win over the Cottagers came courtesy of goals from David Silva – his 50th for the Club on his 350th appearance, Raheem Sterling and Leroy Sane who was restored to the starting line-up after not featuring against Newcastle last time out
And Bernardo is no doubt that the young German winger, who was voted as the PFA Young Player of the Season last term, will be a key figure again this time round.
“Everyone knows how important Leroy is for us, he was one of the best players last season, I hope and everyone hopes he can do the same this season.
“He is doing well, once again he helped us and he’s a fantastic player.
“When you play in a team like Manchester City where you have a lot of quality players, sometimes you just have to know that sometimes you won’t start, but you have to keep working - that’s what he does every day.”
