Mark Hughes, the Manchester City manager, believes he could have driven himself round the bend as he reflected on a series of missed opportunities in the Barclays Premier League in recent weeks.

But despite rueing a run of four successive draws in the league, Hughes has taken heart from the fact that City still find themselves in the top four and have lost fewer games than any other team in the division.

Chelsea, the league leaders, Manchester United and Arsenal have each been beaten twice, while Liverpool, the other member of the so-called “big four”, have lost five matches, but City’s 4-3 defeat by United at Old Trafford in September remains their only loss this season.

Hughes was disappointed to be held to a goalless draw away to Birmingham City last Sunday and surrender a 2-0 goal lead at home to Fulham after draws against Aston Villa and Wigan Athletic.

But he is confident that the team will return to winning ways against Burnley at the City of Manchester this afternoon before he takes a fringe squad to Abu Dhabi next week for a warm weather winter training break.

“We’re a new team and we’re bringing players together very quickly and we’ve been able to perform, but there are certain games where you think, ‘What if?’, if only we’d done this or if only we’d done that,” said Hughes, who should welcome back Emmanuel Adebayor, the striker, from injury against Burnley.

“But if you start doing too much of that then you’ll drive yourself nuts. The last two games [against Fulham and Birmingham] were disappointing for different reasons.

“But the pleasing thing is we’re in the top four because we’ve lost the fewest games. Chelsea, United and Arsenal have all lost two games, Liverpool have lost more so in the first ten games of the season that’s a significant amount.”