We simply have to concede that last night’s performance was just not good enough.

Manchester City may be an excellent attacking side, but we allowed them to carve us open time and time again, which was very disappointing.

Although it's hard to take any positives out of the game, for 25 minutes, until we conceded what many experts thought was a marginal penalty, we were holding our own.

Furthermore, at 1-0 down we had what seemed a simple tap-in to equalise, but the performance after that, and the result, was simply not good enough.

However, it was excellent to see so many young faces there and, thanks to the kids for a quid initiative, a 57,000 capacity crowd at London Stadium.

It makes me extremely proud to know that we have a fanbase who will fill our stadium for a match on a Friday night, live on BBC One, just two weeks after Christmas. It is something that not many other clubs in the country can boast.

Unfortunately, the team could not provide a performance befitting of such a good turnout.

We haven't lost any key or influential players since last season, which was one to remember, so we are all currently struggling to understand why the team is under-performing at this moment in time.

We know we have to improve quickly, and upcoming fixtures against Crystal Palace and Middlesbrough now become cup finals. As we showed over Christmas, though, a string of good results can move you up the Premier League table very quickly, and I am confident we will be heading in that direction over the coming weeks.

I know it can be difficult at times like this, but I urge every supporter to get behind the team and manager – just as you have done all season. We have seen performances improve recently, even in defeat at Leicester City and against Manchester United, so I truly believe we can continue to progress if we all push in the same direction.

It's another London derby next weekend against Crystal Palace, which brings back memories of our 1-0 win in the reverse fixture at Selhurst Park, where we began to turn our season around earlier in the campaign.

We will also welcome back our former manager Sam Allardyce, in what will be an exciting encounter for many reasons.

There are still tickets available for the clash on our Ticket Exchange facility, so click here to purchase yours for what will hopefully be an opportunity to do the double over the Eagles.