Liverpool 3 Manchester City 0: Joe Hart tries to get the ball out from under Roberto Firmino's shirt, fails miserably

Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart did not have the best of nights at Anfield on Wednesday night as his side went down 3-0 to Liverpool.

Having just finished celebrating their penalty shoot-out victory over Jurgen Klopp’s men in Sunday’s Capital One Cup final, Hart and his team-mates looked off-the-pace.

When Adam Lallana and James Milner sent the hosts two goals ahead before half-time, Manuel Pellegrini’s side seemed all but beaten. The sense of defeatism about City's performance was only compounded when Roberto Firmino rifled in a third after the break.

To Hart’s credit, however, he was not willing to give up the ghost. Indeed, he was so sure that there were still points to be won that he attempted to restart the game as soon as possible.

The England international grabbed Firmino as he celebrated his strike and began franticly searching for the ball, which Liverpool’s Brazilian had tucked under his shirt.

As Hart attempted to retrieve the ball, Firmino stared back rather bemused and innocently, before pushing it behind his back to keep it away from the exasperated ‘keeper.

It provided some light relief, if nothing else, on a night when City’s title aspirations took a potentially mortal blow.

The other members of Pellegrini’s squad will have to show Hart-esque levels of persistence if they have any serious hopes of playing their way back into title contention.