Although Noni Madueke got the Blues off to the perfect start converting inside three minutes, the hosts responded through Josko Gvardiol before taking control after the break as goals from Erling Haaland and Phil Foden secured victory for the Citizens.

The skipper felt that the Blues were left rueing missed chances having taken control of the contest so early on.

‘It's frustrating not to walk away with more,’ Reece said. ‘We had another chance early on after scoring and maybe things might have been slightly different.

‘Goals are what make players, make teams, win games and win titles and when the ball isn’t dropping for you it’s tough especially when you’re playing against tough teams.’

Having acknowledged how frustrating the result was, Reece believes that the only way is forward as the Blues hope to bounce back from defeat with a full week of preparation to come ahead of West Ham.

‘I like to think we’re making progress even though the results don’t show that at the minute,' Reece said. ‘It’s tough to see. We’re giving it our all and hopefully, the results will start reflecting our effort.

‘If you look at it, we’ve been together less than a year and they’ve been together for seven years maybe – they’ve had a lot longer to work with the manager and the team.

‘We’re still building and we hope to put things right. We need to take it one game at a time and see where we are at the end of the season.’