Samir Nasri: returning hero Yaya Touré can lift Manchester City for key games

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/feb/21/nasri-toure-bony-manchester-city-title-run-in

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Samir Nasri believes Yaya Touré’s “head is in the right place” for the decisive phase of Manchester City’s title defence and Champions League challenge after the midfielder led the Ivory Coast to the Africa Cup of Nations triumph in Equatorial Guinea earlier this month.

Touré, 31, is set to make his first appearance for the club since the tournament finished in Saturday evening’s home game against Newcastle United. The champions will hope to avoid losing ground to Chelsea, who could be 10 points ahead by the time City’s match begins. The league leaders play Burnley at Stamford Bridge in a 3pm kick-off.

While Wilfried Bony, City’s new £25m striker and Touré’s international team-mate, is set for his debut, Nasri, who is a close friend of Touré, believes the victory in Equatorial Guinea will allow the midfielder to focus on the closing 13 league games and the last 16 Champions League tie with Barcelona, the first leg of which is on Tuesday.

“I’ve spoken with Yaya and it was something that he was waiting for, now he has it and his head is going to be in the right place and we know how important he is,” said the Frenchman, who believes both Touré and Bony could be vital.

“Yes, especially after their win they are going to come back very happy. Wilfried Bony, we just hope he’s going to continue his run he had with Swansea, scoring goal after goal and we’ll see at the end of season.”

Despite the gap to Chelsea, Nasri is insistent the champions have not given the title defence up. “No, because the two times we won the league we were behind as well and we just caught them at the end,” he said. “The season is still long, the Champions League is going to come as well and we’re going to have a lot of games. So hopefully they [Chelsea] are going to make a mistake and we are going to try to get in behind and try to sneak in at the end.”