BERNARDO SILVA has demanded improvement as Manchester City seek to avoid a fourth successive loss this weekend.

City’s poor run continued as they surrendered a lead to suffer a shock 4-1 defeat away to Sporting Lisbon in the Champions League on Tuesday.

It was the first time City had lost three in a row in the same season since 2018 and, although injury issues have been a contributing factor, midfielder Silva offered no excuses.

The Portugal international said: “It’s very disappointing, very frustrating, definitely a really bad moment for us.

“We have to take responsibility and accept that we’re not doing things well, and we need to do better.

“No excuses with the players that we have at the moment. We need to perform better to be at the higher level.

“We’ll just look at ourselves individually, collectively, and see what we can do better because we need to turn things around.”

One positive for City was the return of Kevin De Bruyne for the final six minutes after seven weeks on the sidelines, but other issues, particularly in defence, remain.

John Stones and Ruben Dias did not travel, while Kyle Walker and Nathan Ake remained on the bench, not risked, after their recent fitness issues.

That meant 19-year-old Jamhai Simpson-Pusey was handed his full debut on what proved a difficult night for a side who are also missing the likes of Rodri and Jack Grealish.

City now travel to Brighton in the Premier League on Saturday.

Silva said: “One more game before the international break, which will definitely be good for us, because at the moment, with the injuries that we have, and with the psychological part as well, it will be good to have that rest.

“We cannot find excuses, but we cannot deny that the guys that we have injured and are not available are a big miss.

“But before that we have a big game again, a very tough game. Brighton away is never easy.

“Three points would help massively to keep us in the race or in a good position to come back and be still close to the top. We’ll look at ourselves and try to do better next Saturday.”

City had looked on course for a comfortable win after taking a fourth-minute lead through Phil Foden and dominating most of the first half.

The game turned as Viktor Gyokeres and Maximiliano Araujo struck either side of the interval. A Gyokeres penalty quickly followed, and the Swede completed a hat-trick with a second spot-kick after Erling Haaland missed one for City.

Silva said: “In the first half, I think we had things under control, or at least looked under control. We got to half-time 1-1, but in five minutes we completely gave the game away.”