Manchester City face an anxious wait to discover if David Silva can play a part in the last four games of their Premier League season after the Spaniard was stretchered off in the 3-1 win over West Bromwich Albion.

Silva fell after a tangle involving Morgan Amalfitano and Billy Jones in the 67th minute of the Etihad Stadium clash and early indications are that the midfielder has suffered another recurrence of the ankle injury which has been troubling him in recent weeks.

City boss Manuel Pellegrini said: "We will see tomorrow what has happened. David played the last three games with pain in his ankle and that is why it wasn't possible for him to play against Sunderland (last week).

“He got a kick some weeks ago and every week he has played the game with pain. It is hard to tell without the doctors giving their assessment but hopefully it will be a short-term injury.”

Silva’s injury took the gloss off a workmanlike performance from City which moved them to within six points of leaders Liverpool with a game in hand.

Fears of a repeat of Wednesday's slip-up against the Black Cats were extinguished by a lightning start in which Pablo Zabaleta headed a third-minute opener and Sergio Aguero struck a sweet second past Ben Foster with 10 minutes on the clock.

The Baggies responded well and Graham Dorrans reduced the deficit with a magnificent strike but Pellegrini's men effectively wrapped the game up before the break when Martin Demichelis got a rather fortunate touch to Samir Nasri's left-wing corner.

Looking ahead to the title run-in, Pellegrini added: “It is exactly the same as last week — we knew when we had two or three games postponed it would be difficult for us to be at the top of the table and to feel we are the team that has more chances.

“We lost the game against Liverpool and we knew we wouldn’t depend on what we are going to do between now and the end of the season - but we have a duty to win our games.”

Baggies boss Pepe Mel revealed defender Liam Ridgewell is a doubt for the remainder of his side's relegation run-in after hobbling off in the dying moments with a knee injury.

Ridgewell will undergo tests at the club on Tuesday but Mel said: “We have a feeling he may go on to miss the rest of the season. We will have a look at the tests tomorrow but the feeling is he won’t be able to play.”

Ridgewell’s loss would be a further blow to the Baggies who will now go into Saturday’s pivotal Hawthorns clash with West Ham just three points above the relegation zone.

Mel said: “The most important thing we can do is focus on Saturday which is really like a final for us.

“It really was as difficult game after conceding in the third and 10th minutes and we had to change everything we’d been working on during the week. After that the team did really well.”

And Mel questioned the decision of referee Phil Dowd to rule out a Matej Vydra strike which would have levelled the score at 2-2 due to a marginal offside decision.

Mel said: “We’ve seen the images on the TV and it was very tight, and every time there is a tight decision it seems to go against us.”