Okay, I’ll be honest, that one really hurt. Letting in a goal so late, it’s a strange kind of feeling you just have to sit with after. But here’s what I’m thinking—even though we lost to Aston Villa, I saw things in our play that actually felt really good. We can use this, you know?
I’m disappointed, obviously. The result isn’t what we wanted. But it’s only December and there is just so much football still left for us to play. When you look at it like that, it helps.
How the game went… it was tough. They scored first. Then Leo came on and got us back level, which was brilliant. I came on at halftime too, trying to help the team. For a while there, we was all over them, pushing so hard. Then, right at the very end, they go and score. It’s a cruel way to finish.
You got to find the positives, even when it’s difficult. Personally, for me, it was good to get some minutes again. I’m working back to full fitness and it felt okay. But this isn’t about me. It’s about what we do together next.
The main thing is we kept creating chances. If we keep getting shots on goal, the goals will come eventually. So that’s a positive we can take. We just need to do the things in between a little better, also. That’s football, isn’t it? Sometimes you’re the one scoring in the last seconds and it feels amazing. Other times, it happens to you. You learn from it.
This was our first loss in a long time. The run we were on was amazing. But the league is so tight, you can’t get too down. City won, so the gap is smaller now. We have to just focus on what we can control.
My feeling is if we focus on ourselves and what we can do better, and just look to the next game, we’ll be okay. We played well for big parts of the game at Villa Park. We controlled it, we had chances. Sometimes the other team is just more clinical in the important moments. That’s what happened.
The manager will make sure we don’t let this make us doubt ourselves. We’ve bounced back before. A game like this, it can be a reminder to not get comfortable. It can refocus everyone. The season is a long marathon, not a sprint. I really believe that.
So yeah, it stings. But it’s not the end of anything. The way we played, the chances we made… that’s what we build on. How we respond next weekend will show everyone what we’re about. We’ve been in tough spots before. It’s all about moving forward, one game at a time. That’s the only thing that matters now.
Oh, and my trainer always says you learn more from a loss sometimes than a easy win. Maybe he’s right. We’ll see.
You know, in the locker room after, no one was really yelling. It was more this quiet, like everyone was thinking it over. Mikel just said to remember this feeling, but don’t carry it like a weight. It’s funny how a bad result can sometimes make the team feel closer, actually.
My own game, I’m still finding my rhythm again after being out. There was a moment where I could have turned and shot, but I laid it off. Thinking back, maybe I should have taken the chance myself. But that’s the thing, you make choices in a split second and then you have all week to think about them! I’m just happy to be back out there helping, however I can.
What’s next is all that matters. Training this week will be sharp, I can tell already. We have a chance at home to put things right, and our fans will be up for it. They travel so well, like the ones at Villa Park who were singing even after that late goal. That stuff matters to us players. So we’ll work, and we’ll run, and we’ll try to give them a performance to shout about for the right reasons.
