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Tevez can fire us to Premier League title, says Man City No 1 Hart

Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart has backed Carlos Tevez to score the goals to help the club win their first Premier League title.

City are currently five points behind leaders Manchester United with just four games remaining, but they welcome their rivals to the Etihad Stadium later this month.

Roberto Mancini's side were comfortably clear at the top of the table earlier in the season before falling off the pace, but they returned to form on Saturday with a 6-1 thumping of Norwich - a game in which Tevez scored a hat-trick.

The Argentine striker missed most of the season after a public falling out with Mancini back in September, but Hart believes that now he is fit and firing the ex-United player can help to peg back his former club.

'We have been a bit dry on goals recently, so that fresh Carlos input has been awesome,' Hart told Sky Sports.

'You can say what you want about Carlos Tevez, but when he plays, he plays to win and he plays for his team-mates.'

Hart also took the opportunity to state that there are no problems between Tevez and his team-mates despite his antics this season.

'There are far more important things in our lives than what went on and what didn’t go on,' added Hart, who is on the shortlist for the PFA player of the year.

'We have that goal of trying to win the league and Carlos has bought into that. He has not come in and tried to make any big statements. We have just all moved on.'

Hart reiterated that the Manchester derby on April 30 is the key fixture for City, while he also claimed that Mancini's insistence that the title race is over is an approached designed to relax his players.

'There is no point in us turning up on Sunday if the title race is over. We’ve still got to believe, we’ve still got to fight for every single point available,' said Hart.

I don’t think he (Mancini) means that the season is over. I think he is just trying to play it down a little bit and let us get on with what we need to do. 

There is no way any of us would give up until it is mathematically impossible.

'I know three of them definitely can be overturned - that is in our hands.

'Other than that, we’ve got to rely on other teams. We can only battle away and try and win every game and hope that United slip up.'

Man City target £30m Spain striker Llorente as Dzeko replacement

Manchester City are closing in on a £30million deal to sign Athletic Bilbao's Spain international striker Fernando Llorente.

Manager Roberto Mancini is ready to let Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund target Edin Dzeko leave the club, while the futures of fellow front men Carlos Tevez and Mario Balotelli hang in the balance.

As a result, Mancini is in the market for a striker and he has identified the 6ft 5in World Cup winner as his preferred choice. The Sun claim that the two clubs are deep into negotiations 

over a deal.

Despite a run to the Europa League semi-finals, which saw them knock out Manchester United, Bilbao are struggling in seventh place in La Liga and are looking to cash in on their prize assets.

Llorente - who has seven goals in 20 games for Spain and is likely to feature at Euro 2012 - is a long term target of Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp. But Spurs will not be able to compete with the £200,000-a-week salary that City are prepared to offer the 27-year-old.