Arsenal substitute Gabriel Martinelli scored in stoppage time to earn Arsenal a draw against City at the Emirates in what was a crushing blow for manager Pep Guardiola, whose title hopes are hanging by a thread.
Arsenal had a huge advantage
Interestingly, The Gunners opened their Champions League campaign by beating Athletic Bilbao, giving them an extra 50 hours to recover compared to City who had beaten Napoli 2-0 on Thursday evening.
Portugal international Silva has no spoken out about what he feels is an injustice as Arsenal had such a huge advantage heading into a crucial clash.
“If we lost, I wouldn’t say this. But the reality is, we cannot come to one of the most important games in the season with such a disadvantage, in terms of rest.
"It is not fair to play one of these games like this. It is just not right. They had five days (to recover), and we had two and a half days. In one of the most important games, this cannot happen.
“I wasn’t feeling in a perfect condition to play like this, and people who have not played at the highest level don’t know how it feels to play a game like this.
“You need to be at your best condition. We saw Khusanov getting injured because these games demand a lot. I feel it is just frustrating that we couldn’t be at our best level simply because of the decision of someone that thinks it is fair to come away after two and a half less days than Arsenal.
“But in the end we did well in terms of fighting, resilience and sticking together and sticking to the plan.”
The schedule is getting worse
Players have complained about the fixture schedule in the past, but the issue has escalated over the past 18 months. Silva admitted that he and his side were not at 100% in what is an ongoing argument between players and those who design the football calendar.
“What we ask is that we don’t mind playing every three or four days, and we don’t mind playing 60 games because we are used to that. But what we ask for is common sense because this is one of the biggest games of the season. And it is not because of us. I don’t think that they are trying to make us lose a game.
“It could happen to Arsenal or Liverpool in a few months. But when you are playing an Arsenal versus City or a City versus Liverpool or Liverpool versus Arsenal, you need to have a bit of common sense, and understanding of these situations and in such an important game, the players need to be in the same physical conditions otherwise I don’t think it is fair.
"I know it might have happened to other teams in the past. Today it did not feel like we were in the same physical condition as them.”