Yaya Touré was certainly missed by Manchester City for almost a month after the club could only manage only a couple of victories without him in domestic competitions. The Ivory Coast midfielder was on international duty at the Africa Cup of Nations.

He recently returned back to Manchester City as a champion after having lifted the African title for the first time in his career. He was also joined by Wilfried Bony, who had completed his move to Manchester City in the final few days of the January transfer window for around £ 30 million.

Touré started his first league match since his return in the 5-0 victory over Newcastle United. It was clear that City received a major boost by just having the former Barcelona man in the centre of the park. However, this was not the case during the weekend when City suffered a huge setback in their attempts to defend the league title. The blues lost 2-1 to Liverpool with Touré having one of the worst performances of the season. Touré was culpable of losing the ball for a number of occasions with poor passes and he was often caught in possession. City manager Manuel Pellegrini says that the midfielder needs time to recover from his exertions in Africa.

“It was important for [Bony] to start the game from the beginning. He only played a couple of minutes in the last few games and he only just arrived from the Africa Cup of Nations, where they played a lot of games.I think Yaya is also feeling the pace of the games.It would have been better for [Bony] to score but it was more important to start a game. It was also important for him to have some chances and I think he worked very well,” said Pellegrini.