Manchester City captain Ruben Dias has pledged that his team will continue to seek improvements after suffering their first defeat of the Premier League season at Aston Villa.
The Blues started slowly at Villa Park and were behind on six minutes. Enzo Fernandez's cross-field pass was not controlled by Marc Guehi, John McGinn pounced and set up Nicolas Jackson to lift the ball into the roof of the net.
City fight back but fall to counter-attacks
City reacted well to going behind and were unlucky not to be level at half time when Iliman Ndiaye clipped the post. City continued their pressure in the second half and were level when Ndiaye's cross picked out Erling Haaland for his ninth of the Premier League season.
With the momentum seemingly with the Blues, City looked to be the favourites to score next. However, a counter saw Jackson sweep home his second of the game as his strike squirmed under Gianluigi Donnarumma.
Dias admits frustration
Dias admitted on TNT Sports that he was annoyed with the loss. "Frustrating, felt like we fought a lot. First 10-15 minutes of the first half we took our time to get into the game. They changed the way they set up so we took time to adapt," he said.
"But we fought, we had chances and they ended up scoring two goals in two transitions - very efficient. Room to improve, we need to do better. It is what it is. Whatever happens we need to react to it. The team had a very good reaction."
Looking ahead to Brighton double-header
"The second one was tough because it was very close to our equaliser. We kept going and tried to create chances. Not our day but we keep moving forward," he added.
"I felt like we were dangerous on many occasions, even if the finish wasn't there we arrived in dangerous places but not able to play. A word of appreciation to the boys because we kept fighting to the end."
Next up is a double-header against Brighton and Hove Albion at the Etihad Stadium with fixtures in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday and Premier League on Saturday. Dias added: "A top team [Brighton], another one. A different way to play so we'll make the adaptation then focus on ourselves that's the main thing - our spirit, our will to win."
