Yaya Touré has been a shadow of himself this campaign, but the Ivory Coast international helped Manchester City get yet another crucial victory in the Manchester derby. City have enjoyed the upper hand in the local derbies of late.

This record continued after Sergio Aguero’s score in the second half to give City a 1-0 win. The result keeps the blues five points behind Chelsea in the league table. There was a danger of dropping more points especially given that Pellegrini’s team had suffered two defeats leading up to this match.

City appeared to have learned from their mistakes and they have secured their first win in four matches. Touré has scored in the last few Manchester derbies. Even though he was not in the scoresheet on Sunday, the midfielder appeared to be close to his best after helping the club negate the presence of Marouane Fellaini in the United team. The match was made a little easier for City after they played against 10 men for most of the 90 minutes.

Chris Smalling made a rash challenge on James Milner for his second yellow card a few minutes before half-time.
Touré said that the club has finally proved that they are back on track. City will be looking to carry this form into the Champions League when they take on CSKA Moscow on Wednesday night.

“Today we proved we are a strong. After the Capital One Cup defeat we needed to bounce back, and we did. I think in the first half mine (appeal) is definitely a penalty, but it's tough for the ref to judge and anyone can make a mistake,” said Toure. “There's no real explanation for it (why we faded away). They played well towards the end. We had most of the chances. When you miss them you start to lose confidence,” said captain Vincent Kompany.