The Blues left east Manchester last night with a share of the spoils, as Sterling’s first-half strike was cancelled out by a late Rodri leveller.

The England international spoke to us after the game to offer his thoughts, with the overarching feeling of ‘disappointment’ that we couldn’t hold out to take all three points following such an impressive away display at the reigning Premier League champions.

‘I think in the end we can be pleased with a good point but I also think there’s a bit of disappointment not to win the game,’ said Sterling shortly after full-time.

‘We had chances to finish the game off, although so did they in fairness, but we had some really good opportunities to seal the win.

‘The game plan was set by the manager and I think it worked really well. We caused City a lot of issues on the counter and created a number of chances.

‘Coming to the Etihad, we knew they would have a lot of the ball and would use it really well. We knew we would have difficult moments and we just had to stay with them, use our brains and opportunities would come in the transition.

‘That happened in both the first and second half and in the end, we’re a little disappointed not to leave with all three points.’

Sterling took his goal really well, cutting back onto his right to get away from former team-mate Kyle Walker before slotting past Ederson to hand us the lead.

The England international was pleased with his contribution but reiterated that overall, he was frustrated it didn’t prove to be the winner.

‘I was pleased to score and help the team, of course,’ added Raheem.

‘I was played in and I felt Kyle [Walker] coming in fast behind me. That made my mind up to check back onto my right, as initially I was thinking I’d shoot early with my left.

‘That gave the chance to have a quick change of direction to create a little more space and thankfully I was able to finish it off.

‘Like I said, it’s just slightly tinged with the disappointment that we couldn’t get the win following such a strong performance. But that’s what we need to show going forward, keeping that consistency.’