Hughes backs his boy from Brazil

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The £32.5million Brazilian bagged his first City hat-trick to give the Blues a 3-0 win over Stoke at Eastlands on Sunday and take his goal tally to six for the season.

And Hughes warned: "The more he plays in the Premier League the stronger he will get."

He added: "It is a high energy, high intensity league and playing every week will make him stronger and more influential, if that is possible.

"You can see in his play he really enjoys the test he gets in the Premier League and we have been really pleased with everything he has produced so far."

City were certainly pleased with Robinho's efforts on Sunday. After putting them in front during the opening period, he struck again two minutes after the restart to effectively kill off Stoke before completing his trio of goals 17 minutes from time, stroking in from Daniel Sturridge's pass.

"The main objective is for the team to do well but personally, I want to score more than 30 goals," said Robinho. "I am very happy but not completely happy because I still have a lot to learn."

Stoke boss Tony Pulis was disappointed that his charges, having got themselves into half a dozen decent positions during the first-half, were unable to take their chances when it mattered.

"Their second goal killed us," he said. "I felt we were unlucky to be behind at half-time but their keeper made a few great saves and Ricardo Fuller should have done better.

"Once we conceded again, we were chasing the game and they have so much quality they could hit us on the break."