Well that was difficult to watch.

Eurgh... For the most part that was horrible to watch. I'm not going to get into an in depth analysis of the game but suffice to say we could have played better, a lot better. And yes I'll get it out of the way, we were beaten by the better side on the day.

And just because we lost I'm not about to turn around and change my view on this game. It was a derby at the end of the day and all derby's are of some importance. Of course some have more riding on them than others and on a scale of 1-5 this would probably be a 2 at the most. This one was for a minor trophy and for bragging rights for the next couple of weeks, nothing more... thankfully.

To look at the positives (yes there are some) we proved yet again that we can score without Tevez with another 2 goals scored from very few chances. A superb free kick from Silva directed sweetly into the back of the net by Lescott, and a fantastic drive from distance by Dzeko to beat David De Gea.

Lescott, as well as the goal made some excellent tackles and looks set to be first choice along with Vinnie even when Kolo returns from his ban. In fact I think Kolo will find it difficult to get in front of Savic in the pecking order, but that's another discussion for another day.

It was clear that certain players were still not up to the level of fitness you'd want them to be before the season started but thankfully we have another week to sort that out.

Mancini was clearly unimpressed by the display today. You can see his reaction here on mcfc.co.uk and you can bet he'll go over every detail of the defeat so he and the players learn from it.

Later on in the week I shall be publishing the first pre-match review for the Premier League game against Swansea, and you can look forward to the match report afterwards.