Hart calm about City 'stumble'

30 October 2014 16:31

Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart insists there is no need to panic about his side's form after their winless run was extended to three matches with defeat to Newcastle in the Capital One Cup.

Wednesday night's 2-0 home loss was the most disappointing yet in a run of results which began with a 2-2 draw against CSKA Moscow in Russia before a 2-1 loss to West Ham in London.

With the Manchester derby against United looming large on Sunday City must quickly rediscover their spark if they are to reverse the run.

"I think we've set up a good basis but in the last two or three games we've stumbled a bit," Hart said on Sky Sports News. "Looking back, the Moscow second half was really disappointing for us. West Ham was a hard game, a really hard game and people are going to struggle there. We know we can do better, we know we can do a lot better.

"Then obviously the Capital One Cup was a trophy we were looking to defend and we were not up the standard we wanted to be and the manager didn't shy away from that."

Indeed, Manuel Pellegrini said after the match that he was worried about an apparent "lack of trust and confidence" within his squad, but Hart played down the meaning of the phrase.

"Those are keywords that he uses," Hart said. "I don't think they're anything to be built on too much. We know what we are as a unit. Not everyone is exactly at their peak just now. We just need a few players, myself included, to step up and it will come back.

"This is one of those difficult patches we've gone through many a time and as he pointed out, last season we had less points and were in a worse position (at this stage) and we won the league. We've got to look to things like that but the main thing is to get it right on Sunday."

Source: PA