Manchester City's Pablo Zabaleta insists the players should stand behind Joe Hart

Joe Hart has been in the news off lately for not all the right reasons. High-profile mistakes in Manchester City’s Champions League game against Bayern Munich and the Lukaku goal in the weekend game against Everton could’ve been avoided.

City full-back Pablo Zabaleta revealed that Joe Hart was extremely unhappy with the goal, but he does expect him to regain his lost form.

“We saw him during the week a little bit down,” said Zabaleta. “We need him to come back again to his best.

“Sometimes it happens in football but that’s why team-mates need to support all the players. He knows we’re all behind him.

“Of course he’s upset. It’s really hard for any player when you know you’re not doing well. He has a personality so he needs to show that he’s coming back to his best. And I’m sure he will do because he’s a great goalkeeper.

“We’ve seen him for a long time doing very well so that’s why it’s strange to see him like this.”

Fans were in full support of Hart, despite his recent shortcomings.

Zabaleta said: “He’s been here for a long time and the fans are behind him, everybody’s behind him. I felt very good when I saw the crowd giving massive support to him. We need to be all together in this time.”

However, City boss, Manuel Pellegrini did admit that he thought of picking Costel Pantilimon ahead of Hart, but decided to stick with his number one.

Zabaleta believes that Hart will not be affected negatively by the competition – “Costel is another great goalkeeper and he is putting pressure on him, and that is great.

“I think for everyone, we know we’ve got two good players in every position and we need to feel the competition. That is normal.”

After two consecutive losses, it was crucial for City to win over the weekend, and that too against a team that hadn’t lost a single game under Roberto Martinez until Saturday.

“We needed to win,” continued Zabaleta. “I think it was only about winning the game after two defeats in a row.

“It was a difficult week for us, especially the game we lost against Bayern Munich. We needed to respond well and I think we did it.

“We conceded an early goal and it was important to score two goals in the first half. Then the second half I think we played well.”