Manchester City manager Mark Hughes was left reeling after Joleon
Lescott's injury and a lacklustre defeat at Tottenham on Wednesday
evening.
England centre-back Lescott has undergone surgery and will be
out for up to two months, with the news emerging on the eve of the
3-0 defeat at White Hart Lane courtesy of Niko Kranjcar's double
and Jermain Defoe's strike.
Hughes substituted Robinho for Roque Santa Cruz before the
hour mark and the Brazil international headed straight to the
dressing room rather than joining his team-mates on the bench.
"He wasn't injured," Hughes said. "There is no hard-and-fast
rule that he has to sit on the bench. He started reasonably well
down the left-hand side. He was involved and linked with our front
guys but as the game wore on he found it more difficult to have a
positive impact so we made a change."
In the clash between the two teams with aspirations to
qualify for the Champions League, Hughes was disappointed with his
team's failure to perform.
"We're disappointed," he said. "We didn't hit any kind of
level. For the first 30 minutes we took the game to them but in
terms of producing a real threat we were not creating.
"At the moment we are having difficulty when the ball goes
into the box. We were disappointed at half-time because we thought
we should have done better with the goal. The second goal killed
us.
"There are no excuses, we missed personnel and were lacking
width because of that but we had a team good enough to get a
positive result."
Spurs boss Harry Redknapp feels City will still challenge for
a Champions League place and will be title contenders within five
years.
Backed by the billions from City's owners, Hughes can go into
the transfer window next month, but Redknapp warned: "It's about
getting the right players. Sometimes you have star players who
don't perform. You saw the game, you see people out there and you
think they missed Craig Bellamy."
Of Robinho's performance, Redknapp said: "We kept him quiet,"
Redknapp added. "Charlie (Vedran Corluka) played him well and he
wasn't a threat."
Spurs returned to winning ways after losing to Wolves at the
weekend.
"People over-react to one result, suddenly you are finished
and out of the race," Redknapp said. "It's unbelievable, the
over-reaction. But this is the game."
