Storm clouds gather over City

St Jude The Apostle is about to trend on Twitter as a 145km storm arrives on his feast day to threaten the south coast of England today ; and as the patron saint of lost causes it may be wise for Joe Hart — and Manchester City fans — to offer him up a couple of prayers.

Their team’s defeat at Stamford Bridge — inflicted by a man who many people believed was the most hopeless case of all — is a serious blow to their title challenge and revealed endemic problems in defence that cast real doubts over City’s ability to last the distance this season.

The arrival of new manager Manuel Pellegrini in the summer and the opening of Sheikh Mansour’s chequebook to the tune of almost €200 million was meant to put right all the problems endured last season as they failed to defend their title.

But this result means City have picked up only four points from the last 15 available away from home and conceded nine goals on their travels already; the same kind of record that destroyed any chance of them overhauling bitter rivals United in 2012-13.

Even more of a concern, however, was the way the goals were conceded at Stamford Bridge.

The first, which put them 1-0 down, saw a revitalised Fernando Torres allowed to run for what seemed an age down City’s right flank, ghosting past the out-paced Gael Clichy, and then given time to play a perfect low ball across the face of goal where an unmarked Andre Schurrle tapped home unchallenged.

But the second, in the 92nd minute, was even more of an embarrassment as Hart — who has already made a string of mistakes this season — came too far out of his goal and saw a header from his own defender Matija Nastasic fly past him, allowing Torres to pounce and send Chelsea up to second place.

City, by contrast, are down to seventh in the table, six points behind leaders Arsenal and only two ahead of derby rivals United, who have suffered a battering in the media for their performances this season but who may now start to take some comfort from the profligacy of their immediate rivals.

The irony cannot be lost on anyone that it was Torres — a man who must surely have sent up a few prayers to St Jude himself during three years of frustration at Stamford Bridge in which he has regularly been described as a lost cause — who put the knife in.

But the main frustration for City was they failed to earn a point despite being excellent for large parts of the game and especially in a vibrant second half which saw David Silva superbly creative and Sergio Aguero score a scintillating goal to equalise.

They also matched Chelsea’s physicality, with Yaya Toure, Javi Garcia and Fernandinho standing up to the battle; but the defensive issues which dog Pellegrini’s side are impossible to ignore.

With their talismanic captain Vincent Kompany out injured it is clear the centre-back partnership of Martin Demichelis and Nastasic is nowhere near good enough to cope with a team of Chelsea’s stature; and even Clichy, at left-back showed a worrying lack of form.

But it will be goalkeeper Hart who bears the biggest burden of negative publicity following a rush of blood in the last minute that cost his team dearly; especially as it is not his first high profile mistake this season.

In fact he made a similar error in a 3-2 defeat against Aston Villa — allowing Andreas Weimann to score the winner — was beaten twice at his near post in a poor performance against Bayern Munich and was at fault when he rushed off his line in a 3-2 defeat at Cardiff City on the opening day of the season, too.

Not surprisingly the pressure on Pellegrini to drop Hart is intensifying, especially as he hinted earlier in the season that the Englishman’s place was by no means set in stone; so his verdict on the game, made during a grumpy press conference in which he refused to answer direct questions and admitted he opted not to shake Jose Mourinho’s hand, is likely to leave Hart nervous.

“From tomorrow we will think about the best way to stop the problems of losing away,” he said. “We are losing stupid points because the three defeats we got away we did not deserve.

“The way we lost the game was amazing. But I do not talk about names, I talk about teams. If you want to fight for the Premier League, we must erase these problems.”

There is still time for City to do exactly that, of course — we are heading into November not into April — and Torres’ transformation shows that with persistence even a hopeless cause can be turned around.

But you do get a feeling there is a storm brewing at the Etihad — we just don’t know how damaging it will be...