Lucky horse, Valentine's Day trial and the story of the last time Man City lost four in a row

Pep Guardiola is unlikely to pop a cuddly toy in the dugout on Wednesday night in a bid to correct Manchester City’s faltering form - but he’ll certainly be doing everything possible to stop the rot.

The Blues have lost six of their last seven matches in all competitions with the dispiriting draw with Feyenoord in the Champions League breaking the losing sequence. The dispiriting defeat at Anfield on Sunday was a fourth straight Premier League reverse.

The last time that happened to City was in the 2006-07 season under Stuart Pearce. And that was a season that won’t live long in the memory of many Blues fans.

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City lost four of their first five league matches and were then dumped out of the League Cup by Chesterfield.
That prompted Pearce to take his daughter’s cuddly toy horse into the dugout for a game with West Ham in a bid to change the team’s fortunes.

“My wife Liz and my daughter Chelsea had decided they would come up to the game and Chelsea said to me that Beanie the Horse should stand next to me on the touchline,” Pearce said.

“Beanie was her idea of a lucky charm for me. It’s difficult to tell a seven-year-old that this is the Premier League and that I’m known as Psycho, the hard man.”

City won 2-0 with Georgios Samaras scoring twice.

“After this result Beanie is travelling to Everton next week with us," added Pearce. "He’s certainly cheaper than Samaras!”

City drew at Goodison Park but there season didn’t get much better and as the new year rolled around the goals, as well as the results, dried up.

City lost five straight league games between January and March while also exiting the FA Cup to Blackburn at the quarter final stage.

They failed to score a home goal in 781 minutes after the turn of the year and managed only 10 home goals all season.

In a bid to solve the striking shortcomings Pearce signed free agent Emile Mpenza who impressed sufficiently in a specially-arranged Valentine’s Day trial game where cash-strapped City cast an eye over potential new signings.

The Belgian scored as City ended their losing run with a victory at Middlesbrough with Sylvin Distin also on target. That sparked an unbeaten five game run which staved off very real relegation fears. But City finished the campaign with six games without a win, a 14th place finish and just four points above the drop zone.

And while Guardiola will be searching for solutions tonight, he won’t be turning to Pearce’s unusual horsepower.