Joe Hart Admits Manchester City Haven’t Been Good Enough

English custodian Joe Hart has admitted that Manchester City haven’t been good enough this season, but have successfully veered away from the criticism that has come their way.

Manuel Pellegrini’s men ended an abysmal run of 2 wins in 9 games by aside Nigel Pearson’s Leicester City 2-0 at the Etihad last night. Even though the Citizens didn’t look particularly impressive in the opening forty-five minutes of the encounter, David Silva’s goal just at the stroke of half-time gave the hosts a much-needed boost in order to see out the encounter with ease, after James Milner bagged a second for Manchester City to seal the affair.

However, Hart admitted that City haven’t been up to the hovering benchmarks they’ve set for themselves in the last few years and have looked off the pace of late. Although, he reiterated the fact that criticism from outside the club has had absolutely no impact on the team.

"We’ve had criticism off people who don’t particularly matter to us. What matters is what our manager thinks, and what we think as players. We showed where our heads are at with this result."

The former Birmingham City shot-stopper believes that the real cause of the Citizens’ substandard set of results this season has been their failure to click as a unit and create sufficient amount of opportunities for the strikers by not being high up on the pitch.

"It’s not been good enough – we’d all accept that, myself included. As a team we have to accept that it’s not just the back four and the goalkeeper when we defend, we defend as a team, just as when we don’t score, it’s not just the strikers missing chances, it is us not being high enough up the pitch creating chances for them to score."

Chelsea’s victory at West Ham made City’s quest to retain their Premier League crown all the more difficult. But, given the fact that they have been the subject of two breathtaking Premier League title chases, you’d expect them to relish the current situation and go all guns blazing in their pursuit of Chelsea. And fortunately, that’s exactly what the case is if Hart’s words are to be believed.

"We will keep trying to win every game we have got, same as we have done for the past couple of years, when we have been chasing titles and cups. We try to win every single game we play – it’s pretty evident we can’t always do it, and that is the case right now, but it is what we are pushing for and that will never change. In the end, this was a hard-fought game, as we expected, similar to the game we had at their place, so it was a good win."

At this moment in time, it is extremely difficult to predict the winner of this season’s Premier League. Both the teams in contention aren’t exuding any signs of slowing down just as yet, and with Arsenal piling the pressure on Pellegrini’s side by winning game after game, the situation has become all the more intriguing.

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