Pep Guardiola has stressed the importance of Bernardo Silva, labelling him a ‘unique' player in the City squad.

Bernardo was a second half substitute on Saturday, coming on in the 65th minute for Kevin De Bruyne, before firing home our decisive second in the 2-0 win over Newcastle United just two minutes later.

That brought up our 1,000th home goal in the Premier League era across spells at both the Etihad Stadium and Maine Road.

Guardiola was full of praise for the Portuguese playmaker as he spoke to the media after the game in his post-match press conference.

CITY 2-0 NEWCASTLE | MATCH REPORT 

He insisted that Bernardo is a master of controlling the rhythm of the team when he’s on the pitch, a factor that can’t always be captured when analysing the statistics week after week.

He said: “Bernardo has never been a top, top scorer or top assists but he helps us to play better.

“If you want statistics, you can go to big data and write a big article about that.

“But there are some things that people don’t come to in the data. It’s something that is unique. And Bernardo is unique.

“To make us, all of us, play better, be aggressive and play our rhythm that we need to play better.

CITY 2-0 NEWCASTLE | MATCH GALLERY 

“The game, in some moments, is so quick, so quick, so quick. Sometimes it is necessary but sometimes it is not.

“Bernardo helps us to play in a different pause to have to make the explosion. He is unique. Bernardo is unique in the world in doing this.”

MILESTONE FOR EDERSON : Our No.31 collected his 100th Premier League clean sheet in the 2-0 win over Newcastle United.
MILESTONE FOR EDERSON : Our No.31 collected his 100th Premier League clean sheet in the 2-0 win over Newcastle United.

As well as Bernardo scoring our 1,000th home goal in the Premier League era, there was another milestone achieved on Saturday.

Ederson notched up his 100th top-flight clean sheet in the Magpies win, becoming the third quickest to hit this landmark, after Petr Cech and Pepe Reina.

Guardiola spoke admiringly about our No.31 after the game.

CITY 2-0 NEWCASTLE | EDERSON MILESTONE 

He added: “This is one of the reasons we have won so many titles because we had a lot of clean sheets and Ederson was exceptional in many, many things.

“This is the reason why. You cannot win titles just scoring goals, you have to defend.

“And these years together, everyone made everything, made a good commitment to do it.”