Joe Hart believes the emergence of Nicolas Otamendi has softened the blow of losing Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany to injury.
Kompany is back in training and could be available for Tottenham Hotspur after a frustrating layoff that has seen him play just nine minutes in the last three months.
The Belgium defender, who suffered a recurrence of a calf injury, has started just eight Premier League games this season and the Blues have conceded just one goal with him on the pitch.
But Hart has been impressed with the way Otamendi has settled after his £32 million move from Valencia in August and believes he has helped counteract the loss of their skipper.
"Otamendi has settled quicker than I've ever seen anyone settle into the Premier League -- he's been a real revelation and a great signing for us," said the England keeper.
City started the season in blistering form with Kompany in the side -- winning their first five games without conceding a goal. But they went another four months before winning a Premier League game with a clean sheet.
Hart believes they are now getting used to life without their captain, having kept five clean sheets in their last seven games.
"It was definitely a talking point having started the season so well with him and then not keeping so many clean sheets without him, but football goes up and down and whether we've got Vinnie in or out of the team we look to win and we look to keep a clean sheet," Hart said.
"The lads have defended well this season. There's not been many times when I really felt like anything needed addressing -- it's just been about the odd goal but goals happen. There are some great strikers in this league.
"It's better [to be] more consistent. We had quite a few games where the odd goal was sneaking in even though we were beating teams.
"We won a couple of games 5-1, 6-1, 4-1 so we have to accept that conceding a goal isn't the end of the world, but it hurts me. It hurts me more than anything but the team's more important.
"It's the goals that end in defeat that hurt more so recently to keep the clean sheets is good but we're scoring goals at the other end which is the most important thing."