After picking up just seven points from their last seven Premier League away games, City have now surrendered the initiative in the battle for domestic supremacy.
Even worse, City are facing the prospect of slipping four points behind their fiercest rivals, who visit relegation-threatened Wolves at the weekend, before they can do something about it in what promises to be tough encounter with Chelsea at the Etihad Stadium on March 21.
As Roy Hodgson pointed out following West Brom's 2-0 defeat at Old Trafford on Sunday, the Baggies dragged themselves out of the relegation zone and up to 11th with their form over the final ten games last season, so all is not lost for City just yet.
Still, Ferguson took the opportunity to remind the Blues what they probably already knew; Manchester United are not going to fold.
"We have that experience and it does help,'' Ferguson said. "We won't get nervous. Against West Brom we kept playing our football even at 1-0 when the fans were thinking 'just get us a second'. It didn't concern the players one bit. It is good to see that kind of temperament.''
It is the kind of attitude that is only built up through years of scrapping for major honours and United's significant advantage in a season when their squad has been decimated by injuries.
Nani and Anderson are the latest to succumb, although at least with the former, his present absence with an injury picked up on the training ground should not be long term.
Ferguson avoided a question about Anderson, which meant there was no opportunity to allay fears generated by rumours that the midfielder has picked up a hamstring problem that may, in a worst case scenario, end his season.
Yet the return of Tom Cleverley from his ankle injury means help is at hand, just as United have somehow kept a flow of goals from wider positions coming by having either Nani, Ashley Young or Antonio Valencia available even though Ferguson has rarely been able to choose from all three.
Valencia returns to training this week after picking up a hamstring injury nearly four weeks ago, whilst Young, who missed nearly two months with a knee injury, is starting to find top form again and was a clear man-of-the-match on Sunday.
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