Now the Dust Has Settled What Have We Learnt From Defeat?

Manchester City head into the biggest week of the season so far on the back of a frustrating defeat.

Given the matches we have coming up, losing the first leg of the Champions League Quarter Final may have been the one defeat Manchester City could tolerate. It is without doubt the only game where we have some wriggle room.

However the downside of that result is twofold. This has capped a series of unconvincing performances and suggests we are in a comparative rut. We have played in recent matches with a lack of intensity which has caused our goals to dry up a little. This run has seen some of our momentum dissipate and makes the Crystal Palace game appear on the horizon, looming lazily over us.

What we know though is as Pep Guardiola explained, we are a side sat on 180 points in the last 2 seasons with 6 games left. This is an impressive sustained run in anyone’s book and every game is now an opportunity to build upon the last. Records sit ahead of us just waiting to be broken.

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Our players have winning in their heads and it is a habit. Chances are the habit will continue.

In the game against Spurs, Guardiola attempted to keep the game tight and to rest players for Palace away. We will only know if this strategy has worked if we have a victory on Sunday. Until then it is little more than idle speculation.

From defeat our squad should have learnt that nothing worthwhile will come easy. We will have to fight for every goal and every point between now and the end of the campaign.

Guardiola should have had the chance to reflect and ponder his team selection. But this should be a more natural game on the front foot rather than containment. That should play to our squad strengths.

Palace have played well against us in recent games and there is even a groundswell of opinion that they are a bogey team. But they are on a poor run of home form and it must be unlikely they would achieve a double over us.

The biggest question may be what have the fans learned from defeat? There were some extreme reactions immediately following the Tottenham game on social media. In fact reactions could almost be measured in ages of the fans. Younger fans who may be less familiar with the taste of defeat reacted loudest.

Older fans pointed out they had seen much worse. It is interesting how defeat may be a dividing rather than uniting function amongst the fanbase.

Does a recent taste of defeat make you a small club with small club mentality? That is the accusation labelled against older fans and it is an interesting question. But all we need to do as fans is support the team.

Sometimes teams and players need our support most in times of adversity. It is in those moments that winning is borne.

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Perhaps though the biggest message for us in defeat is that we rail against it. We shout and fire off angry invective. We vent our spleen to all who will listen. We all know there will be another defeat, but let us hope it is far away. And that in the time which passes we find it even harder to accept. Because maybe that is what real winning looks like.

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