Stephen Ireland last night expressed fear that Manchester City could be dragged into the relegation fight unless they improve their form immediately.

Defeat at West Ham on Sunday was City's 13th of the season — only Bolton Wanderers and bottom-placed West Bromwich Albion have lost more — and stretched their wretched away form to 14 without victory. They are at home to Aston Villa today and another reverse could see Mark Hughes's side sitting just four points above the relegation zone going into the next league game, at Chelsea.

"It's so tight in the league at the moment that you can end up anywhere with a win. But with a loss you can drop down and be fighting at the bottom. That is the situation we now find ourselves in," conceded Ireland. "We need a win to get back on track, and to keep winning on a regular basis, because we haven't been doing that."

Hughes took encouragement from City's performance at Upton Park and even went as far as to insist yesterday that they "should have won" the match. This, however, is not an assessment shared within the dressing room.

"We're disappointed because we didn't perform as we know we can," added Ireland. "We lacked a bit of everything on the day — imagination, sharpness. We never got off the bus, to be honest.

"As a team we were not good enough against West Ham but every player as well as the staff knows what we have to do to get back on track. We're determined to set it right starting by winning on Wednesday night."

That will not be easy against a Villa side who are pursuing a Champions League place and who beat City 4–2 on the opening day of the season. The task will be made even more difficult should Craig Bellamy, Robinho and Micah Richards not recover from the injuries they sustained at Upton Park on Sunday. All three are expected to miss the match.

Bellamy was withdrawn in the second half with a knee problem and remained in London to see a specialist who has operated on the joint previously. He underwent scans today and is expected to discover the full extent of the injury today.

Robinho and Richards, meanwhile, had scans on their respective ankle and hamstring injuries in Manchester, and City were still awaiting the results last night. Hughes has admitted that Robinho's injury is similar to the one that troubled the Brazilian in November and December, causing him to miss several matches.