All it needed, at the end of a day when Abu Dhabi held its inaugural grand prix in the stunning setting of Yas Island, was for Sheikh Mansour’s football team to take the bold step forward that would underline the position that the emirate has acquired at the centre of the sporting universe.

That was the theory, but this was one of those days when the summit of the Barclays Premier League and the peak of their ambitions must have felt a little more distant than Manchester City and their fabulously wealthy owners would like. Mark Hughes’s team took their place in the top four and were required to dig deep to do so on a difficult afternoon at St Andrew’s, but their debt to Shay Given, the goalkeeper, was such that this was not the happiest birthday their manager has enjoyed in his 46 years.

Depending on whether your cup is half-full or half-empty, Manchester City have lost only once in ten Premier League games this season or won only one of the past six. Both are true — and it is a run of form that, if Liverpool’s travails continue, will make Champions League qualification a realistic ambition for Hughes and his players — but it was a mark of soaring expectations that they left the Midlands disappointed last night, acknowledging that Birmingham City had been the better team and would have claimed the points had Given not saved a penalty from James McFadden early in the second half.

“We’re disappointed,” Given said. “In these games we’re looking to pick up three points. Credit to Birmingham because they showed great spirit and workrate, but we came here looking for three points, so we’ve been disappointed in the last couple of weeks.”

Hughes admitted to being disappointed by his team’s performance, but said that the wider picture was one of marked improvement for Manchester City. “We didn’t really compose ourselves and we got sucked into playing the game Birmingham wanted us to play, which didn’t suit us,” he said. “But picking up points away from home is a positive for us, particularly compared to last season. We made a flying start and people expected us to win every game. That’s not going to happen. Look throughout the Premier League. Everyone is dropping points and we’re not immune to that.”

Certainly Hughes had a point in emphasising how difficult Birmingham had made life for his team yesterday. Having ended a four-match losing streak by beating Sunderland eight days earlier, Alex McLeish’s team looked reinvigorated, with Sebastian Larsson and Lee Bowyer snapping at the heels of their opponents and Roger Johnson and Scott Dann defending with impressive assurance.

The great worry for Birmingham is that their two centre forwards, Cameron Jerome and Christian Benítez, are still to score their first goals of the season. Both contributed well yesterday, but, after Benítez had seen a snapshot pushed on to the post by Given in the eighth minute, neither looked like scoring. Chances fell to Barry Ferguson and Bowyer, with Wayne Bridge twice guilty of dawdling in the visiting defence, but neither could find a way past Given.

The best opportunity came in the 57th minute, when Mike Dean awarded a penalty after Larsson’s header struck the inexplicably outstretched arm of Nigel de Jong. McFadden took the kick, striking the ball to Given’s left, but it was at a height that facilitated what was nonetheless an admirable save. For the final half-hour Manchester City were marginally the more likely winners, with Stephen Ireland offering more guile after his introduction in place of De Jong.

Hughes felt that his team should have had a penalty in the closing minutes with Carlos Tévez felled by Larsson’s mistimed challenge as he tried to shoot. But Hughes was not in the mood to complain too vehemently.

There was still time for Ferguson to earn the season’s daftest sending-off. Already booked for a foul on Bellamy, he invited the ninth red card of the weekend in the Premier League — the most in one round of matches since 1999 — by throwing an arm up to block Pablo Zabaleta’s throw-in, 70 yards from the Birmingham goal, in the sixth minute of stoppage time. McLeish called it “silly”, but that did not lessen the manager’s satisfaction at his team’s display, even if he left cursing the heroics of Given.

Birmingham City (4-1-3-2): M Taylor 6 — S Carr 6, R Johnson 7, S Dann 7, L Ridgewell 6 — B Ferguson 7 — S Larsson 6, L Bowyer 6, J McFadden 6 (sub: K Fahey, 61min 6) — C Jerome 6 (sub: K Phillips, 87), C Benítez 6. Substitutes not used: C Doyle, S Parnaby, G Vignal, L Carsley, G McSheffrey. Booked: Ferguson, Dann, McFadden. Sent off: Ferguson. Next: Liverpool (a).

Manchester City (4-4-2): S Given 8 — P Zabaleta 5, V Kompany 6, J Lescott 7, W Bridge 4 — S Wright-Phillips 5, G Barry 6, N de Jong 6 (sub: S Ireland, 60 6), C Bellamy 7 — C Tévez 7, R Santa Cruz 4 (sub: M Petrov, 66). Substitutes not used: S Taylor, M Richards, Sylvinho, M Johnson, V Weiss. Booked: Bridge, Santa Cruz. Next: Burnley (h).