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Returning from injury, Manchester City Goalkeeper Joe Hart had a busy day. Not only did the netminder see two early Stoke efforts go past him, he also was called into action to make a number of saves and was saved twice by woodwork. Hart reflected on City's poor outing post match. Hart choose not to dwell on the injury to Captain Vincent Kompany.
"We've got a great squad and Vinny (Kompany) is a massive part of it but Nico, Martin and Manga are good centre-halves."
"It's been a tough day and after a 2-0 loss, it's probably easy to say [we missed the captain] but we'll stick together as a squad, work for each other and get through this.
"At the level we're playing at, we need to turn out performances of 7/10 at least every week and rely on some players to produce 8s and 9s.
"That's how we should be playing and we're not. Credit to Stoke - I thought they deserved to win."
The Blues now likely will relinquish top spot in the Premier League depending on the weekend results for Leicester City, Arsenal and Manchester United.