The champions needed a late James Milner free-kick to salvage a point at the Etihad Stadium against Hull, while Chelsea secured a 2-1 win at Aston Villa, ensuring the gap between Manuel Pellegrini and Jose Mourinho’s men widened.
Despite the setback, City’s number one asserts the team will maintain their optimism and are ready to fight to the end.
“Of course, we’d have liked to have won the game [against Hull],” he admitted. “It’s not a good result for us but we have to look at the positives.
“When a team manages to hold us off and then they nick a goal, it becomes a great task for us [to get back into the game].
“They played really well - they defended with their lives - but it was a great goal from Milly [to equalise] and there’s a long way to go yet.”
Both times City have lifted the Premier League crown, they have had to eradicate significant deficits at the top of the table towards the end of the season.
Hart has been involved on each of those occasions and fully believes his teammates can find the strength to do so again.
“We’ll never give up,” he declared. “Unfortunately, we’ve put ourselves in a position where we’re going to have to come through really strongly.
“We’d have liked to be in a position where we don’t have to rely on that - but we do.
“Our fans are still behind us which we appreciate and we’ll go to Stoke now on Wednesday ready for a rumble.”
