Manchester City midfielder Phil Foden revealed that the Premier League champions’ dressing room was “down and sad” after a dramatic derby defeat to Manchester United on Sunday.

Foden was back in City’s starting XI after recovering from injury, but struggled to make an attacking impact on a largely stale contest. Pep Guardiola’s side rarely came close to scoring again after Josko Gvardiol headed in Kevin De Bruyne’s deflected cross in the 36th minute.

United posed little discernible threat of their own, but snatched all three points with two goals in as many minutes at the death. Defeat leaves City’s Premier League title challenge in tatters and with just one win from 11 games across all competitions.

Reflecting immediately after the match, Foden sighed: “I can’t put a finger on what’s going on. I thought the performance was more than good enough to get the result, but we came out with no points, and it seems to be same story at the moment.

“The changing room is obviously going to be down and sad,” Foden added, before offering some form of rallying call, “but we can’t dwell on this too much – we have to try and pick ourselves back up.

“It’s about keeping our mentality strong throughout the whole 90 minutes and we’re not doing that at the moment. We have to go again and show character to come back from this blip. It’s not a time for moaning – it’s about sticking together, remaining strong and going again. I’m positive we are going to come back.”

Foden’s teammate Bernardo Silva was rather more emphatic in his review of the game. The Portuguese midfielder blasted City’s players for “stupid” mistakes and compared the reigning Premier League champions to an “Under-15” side.

Guardiola, who has fallen into a pit of self-doubt during this disastrous run, has a free week to rally his deflated troops before they travel to Birmingham to face Aston Villa on Saturday.

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