Yaya Toure scored two superb goals to power Manchester City past West Brom

As the new season of the Barclays Premier League got underway, an unexpected trend was brought to light before all the fixtures of the opening game week were even played out. Surprisingly, every single team that has Champions League aspirations struggled in their opening game. The two North London clubs, Spurs and Arsenal, succumbed to defeats against Manchester United and West Ham United respectively while Chelsea were held at home by an impressive Swansea City.

Liverpool and Manchester United were the only two teams who could register a win, but we all know how unconvincing their performances were. The chances of Manchester City keeping this trend going were pretty high, considering that we were heading to the home of a Tony Pulis side. All our fears however, were proven to be unfounded even before we could reach the 25 minute mark.

City fans will be hoping that Toure can hit top form this season to ensure that their team have a good run

David Silva opened the scoring before Yaya Toure put us two up. Another goal from the midfielder, this time in the second half, put the game beyond the Baggies who were blown away by City, or should I say Yaya Toure? At times, the Ivorian midfielder looked so strong that it was hard to imagine any other player in the world who could stop him. Toure looked at his brilliant best as we bore witness to a majestic display of midfield mastery that not only involved crunching tackles and ball winning, but also inch-perfect passes and sublime goals.

Toure was the driving force behind City’s last two title triumphs

A few of us Cityzens complained that we were not able to see the Yaya of old during the last season, and I was one of them. And it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that there is a direct relationship between City’s poor run of last season and Yaya’s below par performances. The number 42 scored just 12 goals last season in all competitions and notched up just the one assist as City secured second place in the League and won nothing at all. In the 2013/2014 season though, the player scored 24 times and assisted a further 12 goals as Manchester City won the Premier League and the League Cup.

As a scientist would put it, the quality of the performance by Manchester City is directly proportional to the quality of the performance by Yaya Toure and this time around, all of us Cityzens will be hoping to see the equation proven right once again. There is a feeling around the Etihad Stadium that suggests that any success that we were to possibly have this season would have to be driven by our Ivorian icon, and I cannot help but strongly agree on this topic. Being a City fan, I would really hope that Yaya Toure can go back to his best this season and thus lead us to some real success.