MANCHESTER: Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart's desire to hold on to the Premier League title is so great that he will not let the small matter of some basic maths get in his way.

“Even if there is one game to go and we are 12 points behind, we'll still believe. We've got to,” local media quoted the England international as saying on Tuesday.

“We've got to keep fighting, you never know.”

Except that he does know that should there really be a 12-point gap on the last day of the season, the trophy will already have red ribbons on it and be on its way to an open-top bus parade with a Manchester United team celebrating a 20th title.

Luckily for Hart, champions City in fact have 11 games in which to overturn a 12-point deficit which is at least a mathematically possible if not an easy task.

“We have just got to keep going,” Hart added.

“It's going to be really hard, we've got a lot to do but we're going to have a damn good go at doing it.”

They could in fact be 15 points behind United by the time they next play as Alex Ferguson's side host Norwich City on Saturday before City's trip to Aston Villa on Monday.