Two-goal City hero Toure delighted to be back

Jonathan is ESPN FC’s Manchester City correspondent.

But it also had something to do with Toure himself, with Guardiola regarding Toure as too bulky and not fit enough to perform the type of hard-working pressing game that the Spanish coach wants from his players.

Asked if Toure had been selected to allow other players to rest in preparation for Thursday morning’s (Singapore time) Champions League trip to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Guardiola responded: “It’s for many, many, many reasons”. Could he be in the squad after Christmas? Yes.

It proved to be an inspired decision from Guardiola. “I can accept that”.

“I spoke in the last month, many times with Yaya because he was my player with Barcelona, I know him very well”, Guardiola said. “I would like to come with Yaya, believe me, I would like, but you know the situation”.

“His personality and his quality are there to see – he can play many positions”. There’s no doubt about that. “He’s not able to play on Wednesday, or in the last (group) game against Celtic”. Martin Kelly’s poor clearance found de Bruyne who found Toure who exchanged passes with Nolito before his eventual effort deflected into the net via James Tomkins.

But the body language between player and manager suggested the bridges have not completely been rebuilt yet. He can not be of any help this round in the UEFA Champions League but he sure will be used for Manchester City during the Premier League season.

Kompany was substituted 10 minutes before the break, having apparently failed to recover from his collision with Bravo. It was one of the most surprising selections of the season.

“To achieve the titles you have to win the games when you play in that way, ” he said.

The visitors dominated the first half and came close when former Southampton forward Sadio Mane, who moved to Liverpool in the close season, forced a good save from goalkeeper Fraser Forster. “We are very happy he is staying with us and he can play for us like he did today”.

But it was Toure who let his football do the talking by scoring the victor seven minutes from time to earn the visitors only their second win in the league from their last six games and condemn Palace to a fifth straight defeat. “They subdued us a bit with world class defenders but we still caused them problems”, said Pardew.

“We’re going to go there and it doesn’t matter how we win”, he said. “Technically, he made a big difference in getting us back into the game – and he scored two goals!” He scored twice on his first league start since April 23, twice answering his team’s call for inspiration in avoiding a fourth draw in five league games. It’s easy to blame the manager but as players we are the first to blame. “We need to focus beyond 60-65 minutes and keep it tight and keep it together and solid”. So we can not forget that a few weeks ago we [beat] the best team in Europe (Barcelona), but there are games during the season, like [here] after the global break, that you are not brilliant. From us, we can’t expect that.