Bernardo Silva on the bench, Riyad Mahrez in the starting XI … and Manchester City fans were shaking their heads.
They should have learned by now that Pep Guardiola rarely makes bad calls, and the fact that Mahrez proceeded to play a key role in all five goals in the season-opening blitz at West Ham, proved him right once again.
But what now for Bernardo ?
The little Portuguese ace was, arguably, City’s player of the season last time round, the principle reason that Mahrez, despite being the club record buy, could not nail down a place in the team.
It was hard not to sympathise with the Algeria international. Guardiola expressed his belief that if Mahrez could get a run of games in the team he would be at the same level as the outstanding Bernardo and Raheem Sterling .
The problem was getting a run of games, when Bernardo was so essential to what City were doing.
That was underlined in February, when Guardiola felt he could give Bernardo and Sterling a rest, and starts to Mahrez and Leroy Sane, when – strangely enough – West Ham were the opposition.
City coughed and spluttered for an hour, Mahrez was stifled and Sane listless, and it looked like the game was heading for a goalless draw, to the great benefit of Liverpool.
Guardiola had seen enough and in the space of two minutes he replaced Mahrez with Sterling and Sane with Bernardo.
The game changed, almost in an instant.
Bernardo’s urgent hustle and bustle unnerved a Hammers defence which had coped comfortably with Mahrez’s more sinuous style.
Within two minutes of going on, Bernardo had drawn a penalty out of a panicking Felipe Anderson, and City won the game.
Bernardo was only “rested” once more in the campaign, as City beat Cardiff comfortably in the league.
But Mahrez had a great summer, leading Algeria to African Nations Cup glory and has, by all accounts, looked sharp in training.
He knows this season is a fresh start, with Bernardo underwhelming in pre-season.
After that brilliant start, when he was City’s best player despite a Sterling hat-trick, Mahrez will take some shifting.
That means Bernardo has work to do, but he is not the type to sulk or lose confidence, and Guardiola will be fully expecting a reaction from him similar to that he showed last season against West Ham.
With Sane out for most of the season, the options are cut – but the intensity of pressure for a place in the team is still extremely high.
