In-depth: How worried should Manuel Pellegrini be about Manchester City's form?

Manchester City lost their final pre-season match 4-2 to VfB Stuttgart before 40,000 fans at the Bundesliga club's Mercedes Benz Arena.

With just nine days until their first league match of the Premier League season at West Bromwich Albion, this was hardly ideal final preparations for Manuel Pellegrini's side against a side who finished 14th out of 18 teams in Germany last season. Goals from Filip Kostic, Daniel Didavi and a couple of goals from Daniel Ginczek saw City trail 4-0 at half-time with captain Vincent Kompany replaced by his fellow Belgian Jason Denayer at half-time.

Yes, but City were hardly under strength. This is the side they started, and finished with. Reads fairly to strong to me. Will it be much different at West Brom is suddenly the question? Judging by this going over, it probably should be.

Manchester City: Hart, Sagna, Kompany (C) (Denayer 46), Mangala, Kolarov, Evans (Lopes 80, Garcia 88), Nasri (Zuculini 46), Silva, Navas (Dzeko 74), Bony (Iheanacho 46), Sterling.

Pretty much everything. Kompany and Eliaquim Mangala were all over the place in defence. But they weren't the only men at fault. George Evans was taken off to be replaced by Bruno Zuculini in what was a mercy substitution after he was overrun in the midfield area.

It is doubtful if any of those two will start at West Brom, but there may be no option with Fabian Delph injured. No sign of Fernando here, but Yaya Toure will be welcomed back with open arms.

David Silva looked very sharp. Raheem Sterling was given a full 90 minutes while Wilfried Bony managed to get 45 minutes. Even if he did not look like scoring.

And City at least picked up from trailing 4-0 to make the scoreline a bit more respectable. Substitute Kelechi Iheanacho scored while Edin Dzeko replaced Jesus Navas to find the second goal, but the Bosnia striker Dzeko could soon be on his way out of the club to join Roma if he can agree personal terms. Is it wise to sell him now?

There was the usual outbreak of mass hysteria on Twitter when they were 4-0 down. Mainly from United and Liverpool fans.

This is not the time to panic despite the nature of the beating. Fair enough, it was hardly ideal, but we should not forget that a strong Chelsea side lost 4-2 to a New York Bulls reserve team only a few days before downing Barcelona.

City will have better days at the office, but if they win at West Brom a week on Monday, all will be forgiven and forgot about this particular loss. Slightly embarrassing, but nothing more than that in a warm-up match. And nothing really to write home about despite the mass hysteria which tends to follow such outcomes these days.