The end of the world, apparently.

The sky is falling, the apocalypse draws near, the end is nigh, blah blah blah. The papers were waiting for us to slip up in an important game and must have been rubbing their grubby little phone tapping hands together with glee at the thought of City not qualifying for the knock out stages. City still do have a chance of qualifying of course, but it means City must beat Bayern at the Etihad and Villarreal need at least a draw when Napoli visit.

That oracle of insight the Daily Star even hinted at Mancini facing the sack with their headline! Absolutely laughable after the record breaking start to the Premier League season City have enjoyed. It's not as though we were played off the park either as City had more chances and the lion's share of possession. Here are the match stats.

• Corners: Napoli 3 - 5 City
• Shots: Napoli: 13 - 17 City
• On Target: Napoli 5 - 8 City
• Fouls: Napoli 10 - 11 City
• Offsides: Napoli 1 - 2 City
• Possession: Napoli 30% - 70% City

We weren't exactly run off the park were we? Both sides could have scored more, but both keepers did well to keep the scores down as much as they did.

So it wasn't our night, along with a few other nights in Europe this season, hardly an incident of apocalyptic proportions. Yes mistakes were made by a few players and many will question the team selection but what is done is done. Whether Mancini got it right or wrong, he's the one being paid to make those decisions and after what he's delivered so far I think he's earned a little slack from the media and over-excitable fans. But looking at those match stats it doesn't appear he got anything all that wrong.

So what if City don't qualify for the knock out stages? Well I'll be disappointed, as will the squad and everyone else at the club, but I wont be decrying the team a failure and demanding the resignation of the manager in the morning.

Lets have a little perspective here, we didn't get rinsed by some unheard of backwater team from the middle of nowhere comprised of players that make their main earnings from being butchers and plumbers. I hate to mention 'them' but look at United's group, and have they qualified yet? The self professed "World's greatest club" have struggled to get a foot hold in the easiest group in the whole competition and could still fail to qualify if they don't get a result against those Swiss 'giants' Basel, who they only managed to draw against at the swamp.

Although the Champions League is important it is not the be all and end all. Winning it was never the priority this season. Ok we might fall short of projected achievements but so what? That's happened before and we've come back stronger and more hungry to succeed the next time.

Keep calm and carry on.





Twitter: @MikeWalsh1880
Facebook: David Silva's Left Foot