Manchester City v Arsenal: Joe Hart expected to be back on the bench as Costel Pantilimon returns in goal But with the World Cup finals in Brazil next year, Hart is concerned that his lack of first-team opportunities could damage his hopes of being Roy Hodgson's first choice, with rival Ben Foster set to return within a week for West Bromwich Albion after a broken foot. Pellegrini refused to confirm whether Hart would play against Arsenal at his press conference on Friday, but informed him of his decision later that afternoon. He said: "I trust a lot in Joe, he's a very good goalkeeper. We'll see when is the best moment to bring him back. Costel deserves respect. He is doing very well and the team are winning almost all the games. We have two goalkeepers and we'll see when is the best moment [for Hart to] return. City could cut Arsenal's lead to three points with a victory but on Friday Pellegrini was apologising for the mathematical error at Munich that may have cost his team top spot in their Champions League group. The Chilean's team travelled to Germany knowing they had to improve on Bayern's 3-1 win at the Etihad Stadium in October to move level with Pep Guardiola's side on 15 points and above them on the head-to-head. Pellegrini assumed that City had to win by three clear goals to go through but a 4-2 win would have taken them through in top spot because they had scored more away goals in their head-to-head with the Bundesliga giants. They trailed to two early goals but despite fighting back to lead 3-2 in the Allianz Arena, Pellegrini thought his team needed two more goals to progress as Group D's top side and made changes that seemed to have protecting the lead in mind. David Silva was replaced by Alvaro Negredo but when Pellegrini brought off Edin Dzeko with two minutes left, he put on Jack Rodwell, leaving Sergio Agüero on the bench. He said: "First of all, I recognise absolutely my mistake but I don't have any guilty conscience about what we did because we always tried to score the fourth goal.