Chelsea had an early lead before City fought back to win 3-1.
James later said: "It's frustrating not to walk away with more.
"We had another chance early on after scoring and maybe things might have been slightly different.
"Goals are what make players, make teams, win games and win titles and when the ball isn’t dropping for you it’s tough especially when you’re playing against tough teams."
James added, "I like to think we’re making progress even though the results don’t show that at the minute,' Reece said. ‘It’s tough to see. We’re giving it our all and hopefully, the results will start reflecting our effort.
"If you look at it, we’ve been together less than a year and they’ve been together for seven years maybe – they’ve had a lot longer to work with the manager and the team.
"We’re still building and we hope to put things right. We need to take it one game at a time and see where we are at the end of the season."