Manchester City players treated Saturday's FA Cup clash with Leyton Orient as the opening game of a new season after admitting the first half of the 2024/25 campaign has fallen well below their own high standards.

City are fifth in the Premier League and scraped through to the Champions League knockout play-offs With the Premier League title out of reach and their European hopes hinging on a difficult play-off with Real Madrid, plenty was riding on the FA Cup as the Blues headed to East London to face their League One opponents.

And it was the hosts who looked likely to cause an upset when Jamie Donley's long-range chip beat Stefan Ortega. But City fought back through Abdukodir Khusanov and Kevin De Bruyne to limp through.

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Khusanov's goal came after Rico Lewis' shot deflected in off the January signing - with Lewis reflecting post-match that City's players have agreed to start afresh this week as they tackle a difficult run of season-defining games against Madrid, Newcastle, Liverpool, Tottenham and Nottingham Forest.

"It [the FA Cup] is massive. The season hasn't panned out how we wanted it to," Lewis told BBC Sport. "We've said the transfer window is closed, it's a new start to the season. Every game now, as long as we win, it could be a great season for us.

"Even though the first half hasn't gone to plan. We've got the FA Cup, the Champions League, so many games to play to enjoy and also to become more of a team."

Lewis admitted to fearing the worst when City fell behind to Donley's wonderful effort but praised his team-mates for keeping calm and trusting their ability on the ball to wear down their third tier hosts.

He continued: "I was thinking 'of course, a shot from the halfway line, after we created so many chances, went in.' It's football, credit to Leyton Orient, they made it so difficult for us to play. It's so hard to break down.

"It's easy to say it's tougher than you think but we all know these games are difficult to play. Especially away. It's perfect for them, the crowd are right up for it. Every game we take as a game we need to win.

"I don't say there was any doubt [after falling behind] because it's Man City at the end of the day, the demands are so high. We demand so much from ourselves that no matter who is playing it's the highest quality. There's enough leadership in this team to push us through to the end."

And Lewis wants to use the cup win to push on ahead of the Real Madrid visit next week as he continued the talk of starting again this season following the winter transfer window.

"It's a huge game, the name itself tells you the story," he reflected. "The lads in the dressing room have played them so many times. It's become more of a game you see every year at the moment, whether that's in the quarter-finals or the semi-finals or this year so early. It's a fresh start to keep going and today's win will help us with that."