Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola said the 4-0 thrashing by Everton at Goodison Park was "awful" for his players.
The Toffees romped to victory over Guardiola's side thanks to goals from Romelu Lukaku, Kevin Mirallas, youngster Tom Davies and new signing Ademola Lookman.
Three of those strikes came after the break as City fell apart and Guardiola suffered his worst league defeat.
But they had threatened to open the scoring through both Raheem Sterling and David Silva before the break and Guardiola told Sky Sports: "We created enough chances in the first half to score.
"We were not able to score and they had one chance and scored. They scored straight after the [start of the] second half and that is tough mentally for the players.
"Of course we can do better. It is awful for my players.
"I said to the players to be positive because they have done fantastic things in this season but didn't always get what we deserve. I think all managers can say this, though."
Guardiola added that he felt City were paying for failing to make the most of good early spells in matches.
He said: "It is football. In football you sometimes don't need to do many things to score. They arrive once and score a goal.
"It is not today, it is almost all the season, and it is tough for the players to handle that situation."