Joe Hart: The Man Who Will Get Manchester City Into the Champions League

Last season, Birmingham City started off their season as a likely relegation candidate as they had just earned automatic promotion into the Premier League.

But before the season began, Joe Hart joined Birmingham City on loan from Manchester City as he looked to get some needed experience as he was going to be the next great goalkeeper in England.

Despite getting off to a subpar start, Hart was given the starting job after Maik Taylor's clean sheet against Manchester City, as manager Alex McLeish felt that Hart was going to help the Blues going forward.

And that turned out to be a fantastic move, as Hart led Birmingham City to a fantastic 12-game unbeaten streak, the longest ever for Birmingham City in the top division.

As the season went on, Hart continued to show not only that he was the top goalkeeper in the Premier League at the age of 22, but that he was in all likelihood going to play for England in the World Cup.

At the end of the season, Hart was on the PFA's team of the season and also was nominated for the PFA Young Player of the Year award alongside Wayne Rooney, Cesc Fàbregas, and James Milner.

But after England's ill-fated World Cup run, in which he did not participate, Hart rejoined Manchester City as he looked to become the starter at Eastlands.

And in the opener at White Hart Lane, Hart proved his greatness as he made several superhuman saves to deny Tottenham of any goals as the match ended in a scoreless draw.

After clean-sheeting FC Timisoara in the Europa League, Hart continued his heroics against Liverpool in a 3-0 victory, including some point blank saves in a two-goal game that showed that Man City were not going to lose on that night.

Now, Manchester City has been able to get off to a very solid start to the season, and the reason why City was able to do this well was due to Hart's heroics.

Even though City was able to do great last year with their fifth place finish, this year will be different with Shay Given now on the bench and Hart appearing to be an impenetrable brick wall.

Hart also will be helped by being such a young goalkeeper, which is huge because as the season progresses he will be able to recover faster than many of the other goalkeepers in the Premier League.

And with Tottenham now primarily going to focus on the Champions League and Liverpool still needing another year, Man City should be able to at least clinch a Champions League spot, if not be an extremely strong contender to win the Premier League.