Manuel Pellegrini blamed Manchester City’s long injury list and the hectic fixture schedule his fit players are having to negotiate for Stoke City’s 2-0 humiliation of his team – but Joe Hart called it correctly when the goalkeeper said his side’s performance had been unacceptable.
Two first-half goals from Marko Arnautovic inside the opening 15 minutes meant City have taken two points in their last four away matches. The last time Pellegrini’s side won away in the Premier League was on 12 September at Crystal Palace.
Before the defeat Vincent Kompany, Yaya Touré, Sergio Agüero, Pablo Zabaleta, Samir Nasir and Patrick Roberts were all injured and City left with Fernando nursing a hamstring injury. Pellegrini said: “There’s no other reason why we played so badly in this game. We are playing in all the competitions with the same 13 or 14 players and for me seeing the game without doubt they hadn’t recovered from the last two games.”
Hart said: “It was a disappointing start and we could not recover from it. We didn’t play well today. A few of the lads are feeling it from the games we are playing but that is not an excuse. We need to put in at least a seven-out-of-10 performance every game and we are not doing that. We can’t accept how we played today.”
Last Saturday City beat Southampton 3-1 and on Tuesday defeated Hull City 4-1 to progress to the Capital One Cup semi-finals. On Tuesday, City play their final Champions League group match, against Borussia Mönchengladbach.
“We were playing with the same players as the last three games and that maybe is the reason why we didn’t play with the energy we need to win,” said the manager. “It is not just a matter of defending badly. We didn’t create chances. Over the complete game we didn’t have the energy to compete in the same way as Stoke.”
Pellegrini said there is little prospect of Touré, Kompany or Agüero being fit to face the German club.
It was a sweet victory for Mark Hughes, who was sacked by Manchester City six years ago, and he praised his side’s display, noting Xherdan Shaqiri’s role in creating the goals. “We were exceptional,” the Stoke manager said. “We had a gameplan – as we always do – and we knew what we needed to do well. But you can talk all day about tactics and formations, it’s the players who have to execute it and that’s what they did.
“We never allowed Man City to get a foothold in the game and our front three caused them problems all game. Shaqiri was excellent. The quality of his passing and ability to pick people out showed that he’s getting to grips with this league.”
