'What have I done?' - Savinho and the long road to his first Man City goal

Fine, fine, miss, miss, mistake, try again.

Pep Guardiola was attempting to praise the perseverance of Savinho after his first Manchester City goal - "Until the end, he tries", the manager said - yet it has been a frustrating sequence for everyone. Even at the King Power, moments before he scored he did the hard work of dribbling through a number of players into the box, only to lose his whereabouts and carry on beyond the byline.

A player who took the No.26 that Riyad Mahrez excelled in has shown glimpses of the Algerian master but has been a novice in front of goal. He had the most shots of anyone who hadn't scored in the Premier League before Sunday and just four assists to show for nearly 1,400 minutes of football.

It is fair to say that this isn't the City side that Savinho expected to be dropped into, and it is much easier to perform in a winning machine than it is when everything around you had stopped working. Yet if the Blues haven't met the player's expectations it is also fair to say that fans have not seen the best of a star who shone so brightly in La Liga last season.

The most damning thing you can say about Savinho in his first six months of English football is that nobody has mentioned his fee. People were queueing up to froth at the mouth when it was announced that City were paying one of their sister clubs to sign the Brazil international and a £21m pricetag - while signed off by the Premier League - had the potential for more uproar from the usual suspects.

Instead there has been silence, because Savinho has been unable to carry his form from Spain into a new league. He hasn't been alone in underperforming, but as a tricky winger is more prominent when he flatters to deceive.

That spark and confidence