From my seat: Man City (A)

It was nice to be top for a minute and I felt post-goal-haze that we would seal this one but then .........

We're fine, we'll be fine, I don't usually like to take cheap pot-shots at refs and write off defeats as learning curves and just one of those blinking days, but I feel both of these things this minute.

Thanks for a great report.

I thought that Deulofeu was going to add some impetus to our attack but found him giving the ball away and not tracking back. We missed Barry in the middle.

Looking forward to getting back home against Hull. Let's hope our international players make it back in one piece.

Everton right now without Barry and Lukaku is an illusion, that is how good BK has fooled all of us. Behind the illusion, Baines is getting ready to leave Everton, and we will have an even poorer squad then ever before, just based on what is left. To not try everything to sign Baines on a new long-term contract is just insane.

The permanent building blocks will soon be gone, Lukaku back to Chelsea and Barry back to Man City or another club. In one season, we could stand to lose 3 major players, we have already lost one, the next is Baines and in the summer we might lose Barkley as well because he too has not been offered a long term contract!

If he does that we can withstand the heat, but if he does not we will be left with average players.

To lose Baines Barkley and Fellaini in one season would crush my moral, I just fear for the future if RM does not take action and sign these guys up right now!!!

Seriously, both times I flicked from another channel in the first half, I watched the replay of a City goal.

I agree about players putting each other under pressure. I was concerned about the absence of Barry but it doesn't explain how in the last 10 mins of the first half, every pass seemed about a yard short.

Never want to see us lose but would have loved to be in amongst the faithful yesterday, rather than standing (can anyone sit down to watch Everton play?) in front of the TV on my own!

NO, Andy mate.

This has to be a season of transition, McCarthy and Barkley both need time and games. Some of the old guard will eventually go out to pasture. Barry at 32 is not a long term answer.

We can't expect Martinez to make a silk purse from the sow's ear he inherited overnight. We are making steady progress and a top 6 finish is on the cards. We all knew the City game was going to be tough, we did okay for half an hour so that is encouraging, we played Newcastle off the park for half a game and we were clearly the better team in the other games we have played so far.

Let's all move on to Hull and we can worry about City in the return game.

Good info on the ref – where did you hear that he had previously been demoted? Personally, I hope he gets better just for the sake of the games he's working. But we can't say he cost us this one.

Naismith incident and their "penalty" were as much a soft penalty to give as each other. Lukaku incident was more of a push and deliberate foul. The assistant referee should have alerted the referee to Coleman pushing/ confrontation incident with Negredo and play should have been stopped.

The referee allowed several incidents, when Everton were about to break, to go unpunished with a yellow early on. If he had given the yellows, some of the Man City players would either have been sent off or if they were clever enough, would not foul again. Either way our counter attacks would not have been stifled.

Finally our concentration defensively was poor, conceding just after we scored ourselves, Coleman concentrating more on the man than the game.

Looking forward to the Hull match, hopefully we get back on track with 3 pts. Barry will be back to help protect the back four.Hopefully all our players will return unscathed. I am hoping Barkley does not play too many minutes for England and gets a rest.

James McCarthy was MotM for me. Distin played well also. Howard was unlucky, Lukaku played well first half. The two subs never got into the game.

I don't think Ronnie has come nearer to giving a few well chosen Saxon words himself and his frustration with the ref's poor decisions came over loud and clear.

Quite possibly, if we had been awarded the penalty we ought to have been given, we would have seen City collapse. As it is, they have a galaxy of great players and, having a lot of help from the ref and a fair bit from our players, they grew in confidence and the result wasn't a surprise.

It looks like it was a case of so near yet so far. For whatever reason, our confidence and cool seemed to just seep away, the longer the match went on.

A similar thing happened in the Newcastle game, we lost our concentration and discipline and were lucky that we only had one goal scored against us.

I like the way we are playing though and I guess it's going to take time for our players to become comfortable and disciplined at the back.

Ronnie Goodlass also gave MoM to James McCarthy. I could only tell from the commentary on the wireless but he seemed to be doing a prodigious amount of work, making fine interceptions and bringing the ball out.

Jimmy states that there is a potential disaster looming at the club but I'm not sure that's the case. I can't see Barkley going and if Bainsey's going to go, I'm sure that Robbie has already made provision for the transfer window.

We can't help but miss Fellaini but we will miss him less as McCarthy, Barry and Barkley get more and more understanding.

We need new players I think but we can't just go out and buy who we would like. At least until we get a Board who have either got money, or spend ome of what they already have.

We're more exciting than I can remember us being for years (maybe decades!) but we still have a small squad and, imo, we're not going to just become a side with few weaknesses in just one season.

We're doing alright so far and to take on City in their own backyard and give them a good fight in the first half, bodes well.

We are in the middle of a transition here and still picking up points whilst doing it. We're also playing some very exciting football in my opinion. Yesterday was a bad result and one we'll learn from. I don't think there's any need to be tying the nooses just yet.

Yesterday, I was convinced that given the same again, Lukaku would 'have dug one out' but such is the doctrine of playing it pretty it was never attempted. One dimensional our manager, me thinks!

We played tonnes of long balls yesterday. You're talking rubbish.

Our unbeaten run was always going to come to an end. And I'm sure on reflection we can look at City away as a place we never expected to take points from. We took the game to them for the first 30 mins but ran out of ideas and couldn't handle the onslaught of £30million plus players at the top of their game. The nature of how we folded was disappointing, but mainly because of the start we made which indicated we were capable of more. But let's be realistic - most if not all of the top four contenders will come to the etihad looking for a single point and will not even leave with that

Lose 1 game and all of a sudden we've lost Baines, Barkley, and we also Barry who'll be a free agent when his loan expires(and I'd say we're now in pole position for his signature). Glass half empty? Sounds like you don't even have a glass!

I'll confess I didn't get to see yesterdays game, but by all accounts, we went toe to toe for 45 minutes, then got done by some classy play and incompetent refereeing. Its always shit to lose, but its just one game, and its one game against a very good side with very classy, expensive players....when we were shorn of 2 or 3 of our first teamers.

Having been mauled by Bayern a few days ago they'll always have wanted to put things right, and when you play a side with better players, its always theirs to lose, rather than ours to win, so the result largely depends on how they approach the game.

Outplayed yesterday but I was angry at the game yesterday at the two contrasting penalty decisions and get even angrier at home each time I watch the replays.

A new manager, getting to learn about a new set of players, and them getting to learn his systems. You got to give him time - and that goes for Roberto as well!

I also have to say that I predicted this sort of refereeing before the game, no way could they allow Everton to beat Chelsea and City, be joint top of the table and the only unbeaten team in the Prem.

How our players would have reacted had the Lukaku penalty been given (and converted) no one can say, nor can we predict how City would have coped with 10 (Milner) or even 9 (Silva) men, so claiming that the referee's decisions had no impact is rubbish.

Regardless of the wrong decisions we got the bollocks tore off us in the second half.

He explains how the game developed and how we didn't change our tactics to exploit the width, instead we continued to play through the middle to Barkley and Lukaku.

I would argue neither Naismith or Mirallas provided any encouragement to get the ball wide. I thought both Coleman and Baines were pretty ineffective in the attacking play yesterday.
We miss Pienaar and a not fully functioning Mirallas.

McCarthy was excellent yesterday and with Barry and Gibson to come back into midfield we will certainly be stronger.

I'm not convinced by Lukaku, yes he's looked great for 45 minutes but the games played over 90. His hold up play second half was poor and he didn't look to impose himself and rarely looked a threat.

The ref was awful. The penalty they got was a joke, at 3-1 the game was beyond us.

Positives for me, there were passages of play first half where we turned defence into attack with two simple passes from defence to midfield to attack. That's something I've not seen us do with such frequency and bodes well for the future development of the style RM wants us to play.

With a stronger midfield and better wide players we'll do well but without our first choice I'm afraid our current squad players can't make a difference. Hopefully RM will be assessing our weaknesses (he should have look on here as we all know them) and looking to bring in better players in January.

Too much to ask?

Ref. was terrible and didn't do us any favours, but we just weren't good enough for 55mins of the match.

They were miles better than us for much of the second half, and they did us a favour at this stage of the season, in so much as RM should be in no doubt that we still need to strengthen the squad.

There lies the problem, in the shape of recruitment, the very best players now cost a kings ransom.

Shame about Alcaraz again, because I think we need a central defender who's comfortable on the ball, a top class midfielder and a striker such as Defoe who can feed off Lakaku.

Still not sure what happened 2nd half apart from being second best class wise, we seemed to give up the ghost!

Joined-up ticky-tacky may please some but, when it is done merely for the sake of it, then it is maddening for spectators and downright boring.

The next bit is harder...then pass it FORWARD to one of our players. You do have to have players who will 'show' for it AND do something with it when they get it

Repeat as required until you are in a position for a shot at goal.

As you no doubt remember, if it is done at pace ping ping ping it is called School of Science or in new money joined up footy

What we have / had Vs City is Picassos at the back and Stradavariuses in the middle.

But our Picassos can't make violins for shit and our Stradavariuses can't paint.

Adaptability to changing situations is required as he related that we tried all match to go down the middle as we did against Newcastle. He said that City set their stall to combat those tactics and won the 'chess match' the game become.

To me, it showed that we badly missed Pienaar who plays so well in front of Baines and enables us to attack wide on the left. We had no one on view to do Pienaar's role and it stifled our attacking threat from that particular outlet.

Fans have mentioned us blowing up after 60 to 70 minutes of a match and big players like Lukaku tending to fade in the second half. This has been apparent with every club who use big strikers. Top clubs can afford to rotate players and have the benches to be able to do this without loss of bite. We still look quite weak when certain key players are injured or off form. We don't seem to have good enough replacements. We need to bring Kone or Jelavic on at the hour mark if Lukaku is struggling. I would love Lukaku to be effective throughout every game but it's been apparent that good subs are badly needed.

It's not just us who use the subs, all the top sides do it but usually to good effect. Man Utd could take off Rooney and Van Persie and bring on Hernandez and Wellbeck. Only Arsenal of the top teams are relying on one striker up front with only Bendtner on the bench. We need to take off one or two of the older players in midfield on a regular basis too and when we have everyone fit we can manage, but against City we could not.

It seems that a squad of 25 top players are required for any team to be able to sustain a challenge for a top spot. I hope we strengthen in January as so far we have been OK with injuries. Maybe Alcaraz (The Birdman) will be like a new signing!