Pep Guardiola Says a 'Blind Guy' Can Appreciate 'Animal' David Silva

Pep Guardiola has lavished praise on David Silva after he scored twice in Manchester City's 4-0 win at Swansea City on Wednesday. 

Silva opened the scoring after 27 minutes with a neat flick, and after Kevin De Bruyne doubled City's tally with a free-kick, the Spaniard deftly lifted the ball over Lukasz Fabianski for his brace—having played a no-look pass to Raheem Sterling in the buildup—before Aguero rounded out the win.

City boss Guardiola told BBC Radio 5 live (h/t BBC Sport's Dafydd Pritchard): 

"David is hugely competitive, everyone knows his skills, there is no doubt—a blind guy is able to see that—but you cannot imagine how competitive he is. He is a stylish guy, but he is an animal, always wanting to win games.

"It is so important for us that not just Gabriel [Jesus] or Sergio [Aguero] score. Our attacking midfielders, our wingers, our set-pieces—we can score goals and on the counter-attack. That's why I'm delighted for David that he is scoring goals."

Silva had scored in each of City's two Premier League games prior to Wednesday, 2-1 wins over West Ham United and Manchester United.

He has enjoyed a productive season, per OptaJoe:

Football writers Rob Brown and Jason Burt joined City manager Guardiola in waxing lyrical about the playmaker:

The midfielder's technique is something to behold, and coupled with his vision and intelligence, he's a master of unlocking defences and linking up play superbly in the final third.

Another impressive facet of his game is that, despite being exceptional when it comes to the technical side of the game, he's also demonstrated he's more than capable of handling the rigours of Premier League football thanks to a combination of both guile and strength.

That he is contributing goals as well as assists is particularly useful to City, because their ability to score from virtually anywhere in the team has played a large part in their record-breaking 15-match winning run.

Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images

Even in recent weeks when they have often looked fatigued, they have so much talent to call upon that in every game, someone has inevitably been able to produce a match-winning contribution where other sides would fail to do so.

City are 11 points clear at the top of the Premier League table, but Guardiola will not allow them to become complacent.

Per Pritchard, he said: "That is not going to happen. We are so demanding for our players. We can lose, we can drop points but complacency, it has never happened in the past, the present or the future."

Despite being delighted with the overall performance, Guardiola still added there was room to improve as "there are always individual mistakes," per the Guardian's Ben Fisher.

City's winning run is bound to come to an end eventually, but it is difficult to see them suffering any sort of collapse to allow their rivals back into the race, particularly with world-class operators like Silva playing at the top of their game.