If only Pablo Zabaleta had Messi every week!

Pablo Zabaleta is targeting six wins on the trot to ease his pain at Manchester City’s title loss and to avoid potential summer burn-out.

City face relegation-threatened QPR this afternoon, having won three on the trot.

The Argentinean full-back now wants to ensure they don’t end up fourth and face a Champions League qualifier hard on the heels of his commitments in the Copa America.

Zabaleta has had virtually no rest since last summer after playing in the World Cup Final.

“Now is not the right moment to think what went wrong this season,” he says.

“We need to focus on finishing as well as we can and to come back stronger.

“We need to try to secure the Champions League place as quickly as we can and without the qualifying game.

“Then I can have more rest and come back fresher.

“At the beginning of the season, we were talking about trying to win trophies.

“So when you look at the players we have in the squad and the ambitions of the club it’s hard to accept.

“Even if it hasn’t been the best season, to be second is important to us.”

The Premier League apart, City’s other major failure this season has been in the Champions League.

But not being able to get past Barcelona was perhaps put into context during the week by their destruction of Bayern Munich, orchestrated by Zabaleta’s international team-mate, Lionel Messi.

And he doesn’t need convincing about what a unique talent the Barca striker.

“I play with both of them, and both are great. But Messi is just out of this world,” says Zabaleta.

“He is just so good in all the important games. He always makes the difference.

“He’s been the main man for Barca in the last few years, and he is also a big player for Argentina.

“Sergio is of the best strikers in the world but Messi is on a different planet.”