Yaya Toure's Brilliance and the Top 5 Players from Around the World This Weekend

Yaya Toure may have his critics, but the Ivorian was nothing short of fantastic in Manchester City's League Cup final victory on Sunday. Not only did he dominate proceedings in midfield, but he also scored one of the greatest goals witnessed at the modern Wembley Stadium.

Toure leads our list of the top five players from this weekend...

Yaya Toure

Manchester City won their third League Cup on Sunday, bouncing back to win, 3-1, from a first half in which Fabio Borini's cool finish gave Sunderland a deserved lead.

The Black Cats were undone by a few moments of magic, namely Samir Nasri's beautifully struck goal in the 56th minute and the stunning shot that Yaya Toure produced one minute previously. 

The Ivorian received a pass from Pablo Zabaleta which he struck the first time from around 25 yards, giving it the perfect amount of curl and loft to beat Vito Mannone.

It was surely one of the best goals seen at the new Wembley Stadium, with the man himself admitting to PA Sport (via ESPN FC) that it was his best-ever goal.

"I think yes,'' Toure replied when asked if it was his most impressive shot. "It was important as well. We needed to win today. It was very important. The final is only one game and you need to enjoy it—but you need to win.''

It wasn't just goalscoring where Toure excelled. According to the Craig Hope of the Daily Mail, the 30-year-old made more passes than anyone else on the field (77) and won the most duels (seven).

Andre Schurrle

Sang Tan/Associated Press

The Premier League's bottom and top clubs met at Craven Cottage on Saturday, with title-chasing Chelsea making easy work of Felix Magath's Fulham.

The star of the show was Andre Schurrle, who buried a hat-trick during a 16-minute period in the second half. Two of the German's strikes were assisted by the sublime Eden Hazard, while the other was set up by Jose Mourinho's current underperforming striker of choice Fernando Torres. 

According to Squawka, Chelsea have now scored three of the Premier League's six hat-tricks in 2013-14, with Samuel Eto'o and Hazard bagging the others.

Arjen Robben

Kerstin Joensson/Associated Press

After being on the receiving end of a 6-1 home drubbing to Real Madrid on Wednesday, Schalke probably weren't savouring the prospect of visiting runaway league leaders Bayern Munich on Saturday.

The 5-1 scoreline was predictable, and the Bavarians' greatest asset on the day was surely Arjen Robben, who scored a hat-trick with a cheeky chip, a left-foot drive and a penalty. 

The flying Dutchman has now scored 10 goals in 18 league games, while Bayern have extended their league lead to 20 points, which is a record after 23 games.

Luis Suarez

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Prior to Liverpool's visit to Southampton on Saturday, Premier League top goalscorer Luis Suarez had failed to find the net in five games.

The Uruguayan bounced back to form at St Mary's, however, scoring the Reds' opener with a deflected shot in the 16th minute of play. In the second half, Suarez set up substitute Raheem Sterling's 58th-minute goal and he put the tie beyond the Saints' reach in injury time by winning a penalty for Steven Gerrard to convert. 

Suarez now tops the Premier League goal and assist charts, with 24 and 10, respectively, according to Squawka. Considering the fact that he missed the first five games of the season, this is pretty impressive.

Christian Benteke

Ben Hoskins/Getty Images

Before Sunday, Aston Villa hadn't scored in their past three matches and boasted the second-worst home form in the league (only Fulham were poorer).

Villa appeared to be on their way to another damaging league defeat when they went down an early goal, but striker Christian Benteke turned the game around with a superb acrobatic goal in the 25th minute, doubling his tally two minutes later with an incisive header.

The Belgian converted two of his three shots during the game and earned a lofty 9.56 rating from WhoScored.com for his performance.

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