Yaya says Tevez could be key

The Argentina international scored during his team’s Community Shield victory over Chelsea to further enhance his reputation after an impressive end-of-season cameo last term following a six-month exile.

And the former Barcelona midfielder Toure has lauded his team-mate and believes the club has moved on from the events of last campaign and can now look forward to fresh “commitment”.

“Carlos has always been committed to the club,” Toure told reporters. “He has always helped what we have done. He made a mistake, but the most important thing when you make a mistake you have to apologise. He apologised to everyone.

“He has come back and wants to show he will give everything for the team. For me, the most important thing is his commitment, because the boy is unbelievable.

“He’s one of the most important players in the team and we’re very happy to have him because he’s such a fantastic player. He’s a fantastic professional and he always trains very hard. Carlos is one of the best.

“You saw [against Chelsea] that he was very dangerous. Both him and [Sergio] Aguero are the perfect partnership. They have played together for Argentina before and now they play for Manchester City. I’m sure they will score a lot of goals for the club.”

City manager Roberto Mancini echoed the Ivorian’s remarks, adding that he believes Tevez has rediscovered his love for the game after infamously refusing to enter the field against Bayern Munich last September.

“I’m very happy because this year Carlos has worked very well in pre-season and his form is better,” said Mancini. “Also, this year he wants to play football. For a player, it’s difficult when he doesn’t play. Last season Carlos didn’t play for six months and that’s difficult.

“So I expect him to be a very important player this season. Last season we had Carlos for the last 10 games and it was important because he scored five or six goals. But he was not 100 per cent.

"This year is the first time in four, maybe five years, that he has done a full pre-season and for every player this is important.”

And Toure concluded that the Blues can retain the Premier League title with a fit and focused squad – but also underlined the important of improving on last season’s disappointing Champions League group stage exit.

Yaya added: “The most important thing for us is to continue to keep improving. When the team spends money, it’s not spending for the sake of it. You have to keep getting good players to get a good squad and be competitive.

“So many people said things about us. We know it will be difficult to repeat last season. We played well all season and it’s going to be very exciting this season.

“If I didn’t think I was going to win anything with Manchester City, I would leave the club.

“We want to take this team as far as it can go. It is so important for this club that we get to the second round of the Champions League. We have a fantastic squad, with a fantastic manager and I’m sure we can go far.”