It was the same old story for Tony Mowbray at Eastlands as Albion easily matched their host, yet still fell to a heavy loss.
Despite City narrowing missing out on a UEFA Cup semi-final spot on Thursday it was the Baggies who started brightly but were again punished for sloppy finishing when Robinho side-footed home in the eighth minute.
A dubious second from Nedum Onuoha after Scott Carson was clearly blocked off extended City's advantage before goals either side of half-time from Chris Brunt drew the Baggies level. However only a minute later a clumsy and needless challenge by Jonas Olsson in the area gave Elano the chance to give City the lead once again - an opportunity he did not miss.
As Albion pressed for an equaliser, and a Premier League lifeline, Daniel Sturridge put the final nail in the coffin in the fourth minute of injury time.
"I think we created enough chances to win," the Albion boss said.
"We're at the point now where we need to win games.
"Their first goal was great quality and we know they possess a lot of quality going forward.
"It was a great pass and a great finish.
"The second goal was very disappointing.
"A very obvious foul on our goalkeeper wasn't picked up.
"I suppose you've just got to take that on the chin.
"Then we picked ourselves up and great credit to the players for coming back into the game.
"We needed to keep it at 2-2 for a bit longer.
"Their supporters were a bit on edge and we had potentially piled a bit of pressure on their team.
"We'd created more chances at that stage but we shot ourselves in the foot by giving them a penalty straight away.
"I'm not really interested in the last goal, even though there was a hint of offside about it.
"But it came in the 94th minute when we were chasing an equaliser that didn't quite come our away.
"We could have got something out of the game but ultimately we weren't good enough.
"We missed chances and lost four goals."