Yaya Toure made his return to the Premier League yesterday with a brace against Crystal Palace.
After months on the sidelines, Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure finally made his first Premier League start of the season yesterday. The Ivorian had been exiled due to comments made by his agent about Pep Guardiola but, following an apology, he now appears to be back in the Spaniard’s thoughts.
His impact was immediate, scoring a brace in a 2-1 victory over Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park. But looking back upon his career, it does beg the question: can we consider Toure one of the Premier League greats?
Let us examine the evidence.
Toure, now 33, has been in the Premier League for seven seasons. During that time, he has made nearly 200 appearances and won the competition twice. Perhaps most impressive, however, are his statistics.
With 59 league goals and 33 league assists, he is involved in a goal roughly one every two games. This is an outstanding return for a central midfielder who often operates from deep; much deeper than many of the other outstanding midfielders who have graced the Premier League.
This brings us to another facet of Toure – his style. There are few more eye-catching players to watch when the Ivorian is on form as he drifts round the field with grace and elegance, equally comfortable playing a 50-yard pass as he is stroking around the midfield. But this panache is matched with a ferocity when required – Toure’s ability to charge past players as if they were not there is legend. Despite his lackadaisical work ethic of late, the 33-year-old is still one of the supremely talented midfielders in the league and would get into virtually every team.
Whether or not Toure is a Premier League great is, obviously, entirely subjective. But if you look at the cold, hard facts then it is fairly clear just how good he has been. A better goal involvement rate than Steven Gerrard, albeit from a smaller sample size, and two Premier League trophies is nothing to be sniffed at.
And, if Toure continues as he started yesterday afternoon, he could have a third to add to his collection by the end of the campaign.
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