Manchester City star Bernardo Silva believes his side ‘gave up too soon’ in the defence of their title, allowing Liverpool to romp clear at the top of the Premier League.

City edged out Liverpool by a single point in a gripping title race last season, winning their second successive crown.

This year, another epic was expected, but instead it has turned into a cakewalk, with unbeaten Liverpool currently 22 points clear having won all but one of their 25 games, while City have been beaten six times.

And Portuguese midfielder Bernardo says his side were guilty of giving up the ghost too early on.

“I think we got a point one month ago where we gave up a bit too soon and that’s why we’re twenty-something points behind now,” he told Sky Sports. “We shouldn’t have done that and it was not on purpose.

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“It was in our head, everyone was disappointed to be already ten or 15 points behind and our heads went a bit down.

“It’s difficult because we’re a team used to winning and last season we won everything in England.

“It hurts a lot because when you start a new season you always want to go for the Premier League. It’s the main competition, it’s the most important competition for the fans. No one expected us to be this far from Liverpool in January or February.”

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Last year’s key moment turned out to be City’s 2-1 win against Liverpool at the Etihad in January, which turned out to be the Reds’ only defeat of the season.

In that game, a remarkable goal line clearance from John Stones denied Liverpool an equaliser by little more than a centimetre, and Bernardo believes that this season City’s luck has run out.

“In the important moments we’ve not been as lucky as in past seasons,” he said. “We always concede in the last minute, Liverpool always score in the last minute. These little details in football make the difference.”