Dzeko rues Kompany red card as Hull go down to City

Hull 0 Manchester City 2

Manchester City need Vincent Kompany – the “heart” of their team – back in the side in order to catch Chelsea in the Barclays 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.”

It was a bad-tempered encounter at the KC Stadium as an early flashpoint saw Kompany shown a red card for his professional foul on Hull striker Nikica Jelavic.

Only four minutes later, Silva scored a wonderful curling goal.

After the break, substitute George Boyd and the incensed City keeper Joe Hart clashed when the Hull forward tumbled in the visiting box and appealed for a penalty.

But Dzeko made sure of the victory that lifts City to within six points of leaders Chelsea – who play Aston Villa on Saturday evening – with a late goal on the counter-attack.