Joe Hart: Manchester City must improve 'a million per cent' to beat Arsenal

City will go to the Emirates Stadium on Monday having won just three of their last seven Premier League fixtures

‘We are in a good place but we just need to start performing as we know we can,’ says Joe Hart (Getty Images)

Joe Hart has insisted that Manchester City need to improve by “a million per cent” if they are to have a chance of overcoming Arsenal in the Premier League on Monday.

As the club prepared for what already looks like one of the decisive matches of the season, the England goalkeeper warned that City have to shake themselves free of a series of poor and sometimes complacent performances.

City will go to the Emirates Stadium having won just three of their last seven Premier League fixtures and two of those victories – routine games at home to Norwich and Swansea – were settled by last-minute winners.

“It is a shame it needs the dragon to be poked before we come out of the cage,” said Hart, who saw Martin Demichelis grab a late equaliser on City’s last visit to the Emirates 15 months ago. “We know what we have got here and it is frustrating when we don’t do it. I think about it now and we are near the top of the league, we went through in the Champions League as group winners and we are in the semi-finals of the Capital One Cup.

“We are in a good place but we just need to start performing as we know we can – at least seven or eight of us. We know every couple of weeks people will have off days.”

When told that half of City’s 10 wins have come in the last minutes of the game, Hart replied: “I didn’t know it was five but in four of them we shouldn’t have been in a position where we needed to win it in the last minute. It is nice that we have got them but we need to be seeing games out more.

With and without Vincent Kompany

Manchester City have lost only one game with Vincent Kompany in the side this season and even in that match – against Juventus in September – the scores were level when he was taken off.

City with Kompany:

P10 W7 D2 L1 Win% 70

Goals conceded per game 0.4

Clean sheets 7

*Starts only

City without Kompany:

P15 W10 D0 L5 Win% 67

Goals conceded per game 1.6

Clean sheets 0

*Includes home win over Sevilla when Kompany played one minute as a subtitute​

“We need to be a million per cent better against Arsenal. We need to step up. We can be awesome when we want to be, so we need to be more consistent.”

After a superlative start, winning their opening five games without conceding a goal, City have been bedevilled by inconsistency. Their manager, Manuel Pellegrini, has put some of that down to a heavy fixture load, while others point to the absence of Vincent Kompany from central defence.

However, Hart, who has played behind Kompany for virtually his entire career in Manchester, said the club would have to get used to his absences, which may become more frequent with age.

“We appreciate that with Vinny we are no longer going to get 60 games out of him every season,” said Hart. “He has put himself through the mill, he is 29 years old now and has played about 4,000 games and had the same number of operations.

“There are some games now where he can’t play. You appreciate him when he does play and you want him to be in the best condition he can be. It’s not just him – we have good defenders – but if we could keep the whole squad fit, we will be in a better place.”

There was, however, some very good news for City on the injury front as prolific striker Sergio Aguero returned to full training yesterday and was pronounced fit and ready for the Arsenal match following his heel injury. Aguero was injured against Southampton last month and has missed the club’s last four games.