The Nigeria international has expressed his frustration with their loss against the Citizens but is confident his side will put the defeat behind them
Ola Aina has revealed Fulham are raring to bounce back from their defeat to Manchester City in Saturday’s Premier League game.
The 24-year-old played for the duration of the game as the Cottagers suffered a 3-0 loss against Pep Guardiola’s men.
Fulham frustrated the Citizens’ effort to score in the first half but after the restart, they let down their guard as John Stones, Gabriel Jesus and Sergio Aguero struck to fire the Premier League leaders to victory in the encounter.
With the defeat, the Craven Cottage outfit remain in the relegation zone after gathering 26 points from 29 games
Aina is confident the loss will not affect Fulham when they take on Leeds United in their next league game on March 19.
“We’re raring to go, if we had Leeds in an hour we’d be ready to go. We’ll just recover well and get ready for that one,” Aina told the club website.
“The position we’re in, we have to just take it game by game. Good or bad results, we have to take it and move on and look forward to the next one, because ultimately there’s a goal that we need to achieve at the end of the season, so we can’t dwell on bad results.”
The 24-year-old Nigeria international also believes his side’s mistakes against Manchester City cost them three points.
“First half I felt like we really made it tough for them. We gave them a tough first half. I felt like we shut off their options, and we created a few openings of our own," he continued.
“And obviously in the second half, it was a few mistakes that end the game for us really. We haven’t had mistakes like that for a long time, since the beginning of the season.
“It’s frustrating that we made them because it’s not in our character, but these things happen. We’re only human.
“We have to take it on the chin and just move on. The mistakes have happened and it killed us a bit, but I feel the team still gave a good fight.
“Everyone knows about Man City, everyone knows they’re such a good side and they’ve got good depth in their squad, but we felt like we could’ve definitely got something from the game.
“If we don’t make the mistakes then we do give them a run for their money, in my opinion. But we have to just take it as it is and move onto Leeds.”
Aina has made 27 appearances across all competitions for Fulham since joining the side on loan from Serie A club Torino last summer, scoring two goals and providing one assist.