emotion filled the etihad stadium on sunday as bernardo silva played his last game for manchester city. the 31-year-old portuguese midfielder, who started the match against aston villa, received a thunderous applause from the crowd just before the hour mark when he was substituted by mateo kovacic.

overcome with emotion, silva greeted his teammates on the pitch before walking through a guard of honour formed by both manchester city and aston villa players. he then embraced Pep Guardiola, his manager for the past nine seasons, who is also leaving the club after the match. silva made a total of 460 appearances for manchester city, scoring 76 goals and providing 77 assists.

eighteen minutes later, john stones, another manchester city player departing the club, was also given a guard of honour as he left the field in the 77th minute. stones joined manchester city in 2016, the same year as guardiola.