Manchester City fly to Abu Dhabi this morning with Mark Hughes, the manager, demanding an end to the errors that have raised questions about his team’s ability to make a sustained push for a top-four finish this season.

Hughes takes a fringe squad to the oil-rich Gulf state for a five-day winter training break, which will include a friendly match against the United Arab Emirates at the Zayed Stadium on Thursday.

It has not been confirmed whether Hughes will meet Sheikh Mansour, although the club’s owner could be forgiven for asking the manager to explain why City have won only one of their past seven league matches after such a bright start to the campaign.

City’s 3-3 draw at home to Burnley on Saturday was their fifth successive draw in the league and the second consecutive home match in which they have surrendered a lead, after throwing away a two-goal advantage against Fulham.

City came from 2-0 down against Burnley to lead 3-2 but were denied only their second top-flight victory in eight weeks by Kevin McDonald’s 87th-minute strike, with Hughes bemoaning his team’s inability to see out matches and their continuing defensive mistakes.

“We’ll always be an attacking threat because of the players that we have, but I talk time and time again about recognising when the momentum changes and it goes against you,” Hughes said. “You have got to set your stall out, make sure you ride the storm and then come again. At the moment, we are not showing that capability.

“We have a group of experienced Premier League players and that recognition of situations before they develop should be there.

“At the moment, we are struggling to take the sting out of things. You have to give the opposition no encouragement — you have to see them off, discourage them. We talk about consecutive errors and recognising that when someone makes a mistake, other people have to react and make sure another one doesn’t follow. That’s what we didn’t do at the end [against Burnley].”