Manchester City are determined to bounce back from their disappointing derby defeat by Manchester United, defender Aleks Zinchenko says.
City were poor and outplayed by United, who inflicted a first defeat on the league leaders in 29 games. It was a case of one game too much for the Blues, but they remain in control of the Premier League title and are still in the other three cup competitions.
The derby defeat was disappointing, but defender Zinchenko says the best way to react is to return to winning ways against Southampton on Wednesday night.
And Zinchenko refused to allow his teammates to regress and dwell on the United defeat, saying: "We have to win the next game, we have to be more focused. We are not allowed to go back. We have to go forwards.
"We are still playing in all competitions. We want to win everything this season and I hope we can do this. We are still alive and we can (afford) mistakes but we are going to come back stronger, I am pretty sure of that."
Reflecting on the United defeat, Zinchenko admitted conceding a first-minute penalty set City on their way to a rare off-day - despite his insistence that the Blues were the better side for large portions of the contest.
He explained: "It is all about how we started the game. To concede in the first minute is not easy to come back from. Afterwards we played much better than the opponent. We controlled the game, we created enough chances but we didn't score.
"United are also one of the best teams in the world, they have unbelievable players and they organise well defensively. It is not easy but still we have to learn a bit more how to come back in the game after these kind of situations."
