Man City's Kevin De Bruyne upbeat despite first Premier League defeat
Monday 21 September 2015 16:37, UK
Manchester City forward Kevin De Bruyne is confident the team will return to winning ways providing they continue to create chances.
City's impressive start to the campaign was ended in the last week with home defeats to Juventus in the Champions League and West Ham in the Premier League.
Manuel Pellegrini's men had not even conceded a goal in their five games prior to that and they will not want the blip to develop into anything more serious.
City did create a number of chances in both losses, and looked like they would come back in the second half of Saturday's 2-1 home defeat against the Hammers.
And the performance has given City's recent £54m arrival cause for optimism ahead the League Cup trip to Sunderland on Tuesday.
De Bruyne, who scored on his home debut, said: "We just have to play like we did in the second half. The only thing we have to do is score goals and then obviously we can win that game.
"It's always difficult and it won't be easy at Sunderland but we have to get a win over there. We want to do well in all the competitions."
Pellegrini may use the tie to rest some bigger names ahead of Saturday's game against Tottenham at White Hart Lane.
Joe Hart, Bacary Sagna, Eliaquim Mangala, Aleksandar Kolarov, Yaya Toure and Fernandinho have started every game this season.
Mangala is a fitness doubt ahead of Tuesday's match after being withdrawn at half-time against West Ham, as is David Silva with a calf problem.
Spanish right-back Pablo Maffeo, who has been on the fringe of the first-team squad this term, could also come in if Sagna is given the night off with first-choice Pablo Zabaleta out of action until at least the end of the month.
Sagna said: "We have a big squad with quality players. Pablo is injured at the moment, but I don't know whether he will play me or not - my job is to bring something to the team.
"We want to win as many cups as possible. We will think about what happened against West Ham and work towards coming back stronger. Every team is dangerous and hard to play against."
