On the result: "It's ridiculous to sit here and talk about positives when you've been beaten five goals to nil. Admittedly we're playing against a really top quality team and they certainly, when they get in the lead, are capable of showing the full register - their technical ability and the ability to take goal chances.
"We wanted at least to repeat what we had done in the first half [in the second], where we had matched them or kept them certainly at bay for 44 minutes and on the counter attack we had created some good moments of our own. When that doesn't happen in the second half you've got to be very disappointed.
"We've got to accept that we've been given a headache and now during the course of the week we've got to try to find the aspirins which will ease the headache and keep working on the things that we are trying to work on because unfortunately there's a risk that Man United and Chelsea will also be as capable as Man City have been. They will punish us if we don't get things right."
On parallels to his time at Fulham: "It's equal to it, without a shadow of a doubt, but the difference is that when I came in to Fulham there were 18 games to play, here - to be fair - we've still got 32 games to play, so a lot of things can change. Unlucky, after a bad start with five games and no points, that you do run up against teams of this quality that to be honest are capable of punishing teams. It's a baptism of fire in that respect, but what we've got to do quite simply is to make sure that we don't start panicking and thinking that we're in a hopeless position come the end of September, because we've got October, November, December, January, February, March, April and May to change so many things.
"We were relegated, funnily enough, for weeks at Fulham and when we were 2-0 down here at Man City at half time with four or five games to play we were mathematically relegated - had we lost the game. We ended up taking 12 or 11 points from the last 15, so we've got to bear that in mind. When I took this job I knew we had a lot of work to do. We knew that the training field and the work ethic were the only thing that could save us, but we have to work month after month after month.
"Hopefully we will see some light at the end of the tunnel one day, I thought I was beginning to see a bit of light towards half time but those lights went out in the second half."
On Christian Benteke: "[He's] Not well. We think it's a form of ligament damage, but I don't know how bad that ligament damage is. He's going to have a scan tomorrow, but it will mean he won't be playing in the next game, I'm pretty sure of that, which we could do without at this moment in time!"
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