Gundogan: Man City to blame for dropped points this season

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Ilkay Gundogan feels Manchester City have only themselves to blame after slipping to a surprise and costly defeat by Wolves.

Adama Traore struck twice in the final 10 minutes as Wolves stunned the Premier League champions to claim a 2-0 win at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday.

The defeat was City’s second of the season and, although they remain second on the table, they now already trail leaders Liverpool by eight points.

It was a well-disciplined performance from the visitors, who exposed the home defence a number of times on the counter-attack, but Gundogan felt City contributed to their own downfall.

The German midfielder told the BBC: ‘We have lost the game because of our own mistakes, again unfortunately. It feels like we gave Wolves the three points.

‘We know that all the points we have dropped this season we didn’t drop because the opponent was so much better, we dropped them because of us. We were guilty for these dropped points. That is the main part and that hurts so much.

‘Even though we have created chances we didn’t score and when you concede the first goal it is difficult to come back from that.’

City, with Fernandinho and Nicolas Otamendi again paired in defence, were sloppy at the back and lucky not to trail at the break. Misplaced passes presented Wolves with three gilt-edged openings in the first half but they could not capitalise.

It seemed they could pay for their profligacy as City stepped up in the second half and hit the bar through David Silva, but the visitors remained resolute and pounced twice late on.

Both goals were similar as Raul Jimenez broke to play in Traore for his first goals for over a year, the Spaniard twice slipping the ball past Ederson in cool fashion.

Wolves did not play like a side that had previously won only one Premier League game this season, nor did they seem fatigued after their Europa League trip to Turkey on Thursday.

Mexican forward Jimenez felt the team were getting back to the formula that served them so well last season.

Jimenez said: ‘We had a great performance. We think we did it well. We did the things that last season made us be top of the league. We have to continue like this for the next match.

‘We knew that City is a game that, when they have the ball, they leave some spaces when they are attacking.

‘We didn’t have too much time to plan the game because last Thursday we were playing in Turkey and we had two days for rest.

‘So it was just the things that we know, the things that we are good doing and just we made it.

‘In the first half I think we had some opportunities to score but the things happen for something and we were good enough to do it in the second half.’

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