Manchester City not where they should be at yearend, says Joe Hart

Manuel Pellegrini feels Manchester City are on the right track for Premier League success this campaign.

Although the Belgian global missed out on Monday night against Leicester City, his teammates were able to keep their first clean sheet of the season without him as they claimed a point in a goalless draw with their rivals at the top of the table.

“One of the good things about tonight is that we kept a clean sheet after many games without”.

“If you can’t win it’s important not to lose and we were solid against a hard team”.

Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri thought his side showed signs of fatigue at Anfield, but was delighted with their effort on Tuesday, saying a point apiece was a fair result.

Raheem Sterling also said he thought City deserved more than a draw from the game at the King Power Stadium. We played very well Sunderland and I think we played very well also against Leicester. Keeping this pace will see them finish with 78 points after 38 games, making them the weakest champions since 1998.

Alan Shearer said last week City are a soft touch when Kompany does not play, and Otamendi’s response to that was: “Vinny gives us all his experience, personality and character on the pitch and is a big loss but we have other players who can do the job as well”. I remember the match there, and against Arsenal the first half an hour they played very well.

“We started the season strongly, but we have not been great over the last 12 games or so”.

‘We must think about Leicester as a team and hope if we repeat the performance we did on Saturday we can beat them – but it will be a very tough game’.

Pellegrini’s side moved to within three points of leaders Arsenal with a point at Leicester, while the home side went level on points with the Gunners at the season’s halfway point. “I wanted to see the reaction from the Liverpool game and it was good”, the Italian told reporters.

Manuel Pellegrini believes Manchester City’s problematic away form will be solved once his players’ finishing improves, with his team having taken three points from the last 18 available on the road.

“In seconds I found maybe 10 or 12 reasons to say: ‘Paulo, we need to be happy.’ We are competitive, we have a good connection with the fans, they are happy, we are in a good position, we are playing well and have the possibility to win a lot”.

“I’d love this to continue but it’s not easy”.