AFP /Manchester


Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart said that fatigue was no excuse after the Premier League leaders crashed to a 2-0 defeat at Stoke City yesterday.
Manuel Pellegrini’s side were hoping to put pressure on the teams below them, but instead they were ripped apart by Stoke, with Xherdan Shaqiri setting up Marko Arnautovic for the hosts’ two early goals. “It was a disappointing start and we could not recover from it,” Hart said.
“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 7/10 performance every game and we are not doing that.”
City have struggled during the absence of injured captain Vincent Kompany, but Hart said that there was enough depth in their squad to compensate. “Vincent Kompany is a massively important part of our squad, but we have a good squad here,” said the England international.  “After a 2-0 loss it is easy to say, but we will stick together as a squad. Conditions were tough, but that’s English football. Nobody was able to walk off the pitch with an excuse. Both teams played on it and Stoke deserved to beat us today. We can’t accept how we played.”
Stoke could have won the game more comfortably, with Arnautovic squandering several chances to complete his hat-trick, and produced some scintillating football despite the swirling wind at the Britannia Stadium.
Mark Hughes’s men have now beaten Chelsea and City in successive home games and Shaqiri believes there is more to come. “It is important that we play how the coach wants and today we see that from the first minute we want to win the game. The two goals were very nice,” said the Switzerland winger.
 
Sanchez could have been killed, fumes Wenger
Arsene Wenger claims Arsenal star Alexis Sanchez could have been killed when Norwich defender Ryan Bennett pushed him into the Carrow Road camera pit last weekend.
Chile international Sanchez landed heavily in the cameraman’s area on the touchline during an incident in the first half of Sunday’s 1-1 draw and was later forced off with a hamstring injury. He is now likely to be sidelined for several weeks and Gunners boss Wenger feels it could have been worse for the former Barcelona forward. “First of all it’s dangerous to have a camera there,” Wenger said.
“He could have killed him. Secondly, he (Bennett) didn’t need to push him like he did. I think the camera position was absolutely dangerous. When he was pushed into the boards on the side of the field that did not shock anybody.  That injury can come from that as well. I’m not expert enough to know but if you want to blame me I’m okay with it.”
Bennett tweeted after the match to give his side of the incident, writing: “Genuinely was trying to stop not push Sanchez just to clear that up.”