HULL CITY 0
MANCHESTER CITY 1
Silva 14’, Dzeko 90’
Red card: Kompany (Manchester City)
Manchester City bounced back from their FA Cup and Uefa Champions League exits to beat Hull City 2-0 with 10 men to keep alive their Premier League title hopes on Saturday.
City had captain Vincent Kompany sent off after 10 minutes for hauling down striker Nikica Jelavic on the edge of his own box, but they took the lead two minutes later through David Silva before Edin Dzeko added the second in the 90th minute.
Silva scored with a superbly executed curling shot in the 12th minute after a delicate pass from Yaya Toure and although Hull battled gamely, City made light of their one-man disadvantage and stretched their unbeaten away run in the league to eight games.
Dzeko wrapped up the points from point blank range after a pass from Silva.
City coach Manuel Pellegrini was very happy with his team’s response after what he called “a very difficult week”.
“We have just lost to Wigan and Barcelona so we needed to win today and playing with one player less for 80 minutes was very difficult,” he said.
“But we gave a very good performance. We defended well with and without the ball and created a lot of scoring chances and it was a very professional response. We played very well.”
Hull manager Steve Bruce, whose side have bow lost their last three matches, said: “The turning point was the goal, if we had gone 10 or 15 minutes [without conceding] after the sending off it might have been a different situation, but we were continually chasing the game against a quality side, even though they only had 10 men.
“We huffed and puffed and got frustrated and it ended up being a difficult afternoon.”
The win lifted City in to second place in the table on 60 points, six behind leaders Chelsea who play away at Aston Villa in the day’s late kickoff.
Liverpool and Arsenal, who play Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur respectively on Sunday, are in second and third places with 59 points.
City were eliminated from the FA Cup by Wigan Athletic last Sunday and were knocked out of the Champions League by Barcelona on Wednesday.
Manchester City need Kompany - the “heart” of their team - back in the side in order to catch Chelsea in the Premier League title race, according to striker Edin Dzeko.
The Belgian centre-back was sent off after only 10 minutes of City’s 2-0 victory at Hull, meaning he will not captain Manuel Pellegrini’s men against struggling Fulham next week.
Dzeko, who hit a late goal to rubber-stamp the points after David Silva had opened the scoring, praised his team-mates for staying strong without their influential skipper.
The Bosnian told BT Sport: “Vinny is our captain and our leader, our heart, and I hope he will be back soon so we can win games together.
“We showed character with the 10 men over 80 minutes and we did a good job.
“We were fighting all game because we knew what the game meant for us. We won the game and that’s important.
“The next game against Fulham is important and we will try to win that.”
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