Pep Guardiola admits Yaya Toure is back in favour for selection

Manchester City head coach Pep Guardiola has indicated Yaya Toure is back in favour after he played captained the side in the 2-1 win over West Bromwich Albion in the League Cup.

The Citizens have now progressed to the fourth round of the competition where they face off against Championship promotion hopefuls Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Toure was left on the bench for the opening three games of the league campaign before being excluded from the matchday squads altogether owing to sporting reasons. The Ivorian suffered a similar treatment from Guardiola last year after an outburst with agent Dimitri Seluk saw the veteran miss out on the Champions League squad.

Guardiola has decided to proceed without Toure once again in Europe this term but insists that the midfielder will have a key role to play with the extended number of games across all competitions, he said:

“We need him and of course it’s not easy for the players who didn’t play in the last games. But he showed his personality because it’s not easy for him to play in these type of games but he did it well and that’s why we’re happy for him to come back. And we are going to use him. Everybody is going to play. We have a lot of games. Three days later we have a game, then three days later after Stamford Bridge we have the Champions League.”

Toure had been expected to leave the Citizens at the end of the previous campaign, but he earned the trust of the manager, who offered him a fresh one-year contract. However, the extension does not seem to have assurances of regular first-team football as Guardiola has made it clear to utilise Kevin de Bruyne in a deeper midfield role alongside Fernandinho. Manchester City are currently top of the Premier League table with 13 points.