8 Incredible Yaya Toure Stats Fans Should Be Talking About
By common perception, Premier League champions Manchester City haven't quite reached the heights which propelled them to glory last season in the current campaign.
The form of Yaya Toure has been seen as key to that, with the Ivorian not being able to reproduce last season's stellar displays that helped inspire his club to the title.
There is little doubt that Toure remains one of the great modern midfielders, but is the 31-year-old just slowing down as age creeps up on him?
Here are eight stats that City and Premier League fans should know about him.
He's 5-1 Down Compared to Last Season
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A year ago this coming weekend, Toure scored from a free-kick in City's ruthless 7-0 demolition of Norwich at the Etihad Stadium.
It was a display of power and dynamism which showcased just why Manuel Pellegrini's side would go on to be champions, and the Ivorian was right at the heart of it as he scored what was already his fifth league goal of the season.
Fast forward to 2014, though, and Toure goes into this weekend's Manchester derby with just the one league goal to his name—the strike at Aston Villa—and with a lot of work to do to get anywhere near last season's tally of 20 Premier League strikes.
But He's Having More Shots Per Game
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As this pre-West Ham United game article from Squawka's Jack Johnson points out, Toure is actually having more shots per game in the current campaign than he did in the last one, despite his struggles in front of goal.
In his prolific 2013/14 season, Toure managed an average of 1.83 efforts on goal per game on his way to scoring 20 Premier League goals, while this time around he's averaging 2.57 efforts per game despite scoring just once.
Maybe it's a case of taking more care with his shots as opposed to just trying to score from distance?
His Bookings Are Up
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Toure was yellow-carded in three of City's first four Premier League games this season—the matches against Liverpool, Stoke City and Chelsea—ensuring that he's been booked more times than he's actually scored in 2014/15.
Is this a sign that he's slowing down? The booking against Stoke was actually for simulation so it's little harsh to include that one, but the sheer number of bookings is quite unlike him.
And He Was Only Booked 4 Times in the League in 2013/14
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His current tally of three yellows is just one away from matching his total of four for the entire 2013/14 Premier League season.
Indeed, it took Toure until the Arsenal fixture at the end of March to reach three bookings last season, while he hadn't even picked up his first until the 6-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur at the end of November.
He was obviously too busy scoring goals.
Only Aguero and Tevez Have Outscored Him for City in a Premier League Season
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The reason that there has been so much surprise over Toure's struggles in this campaign is simply because he was so unstoppable in the last one.
The Ivorian's total of 20 Premier League goals has only ever been topped by two City players in a single season in the post-1992 era—Carlos Tevez in the 2009/10 campaign when he hit 23 goals, and Sergio Aguero when he managed the same number two years later.
The Argentinian pair aren't bad players to be in the company of, and they only go to show just how prolific Toure was in 20013/14.
Most Goals from a Midfielder Since 2009/10
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In fact, Toure's 20 strikes were the most managed by any midfielder in the division since Frank Lampard bagged 22 league goals from the centre of the pitch as Chelsea won the league under Carlo Ancelotti in 2009/10.
Like Lampard's Chelsea, City won Premier League honours off the back of Toure's goals too, as the Ivorian turned in one of the all-time great midfield campaigns.
Matching Gerrard's Best-Ever Season
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Add in his goals in other competitions and Toure netted 24 times in total last season, exactly the same amount as Liverpool's Steven Gerrard scored in what many considered to be his best-ever season in 2008/09.
Indeed, Gerrard was so good in that campaign that football legend Zinedine Zidane once hailed him as the best player in the world after he scored two goals in a match against Real Madrid, as seen here in the Guardian, so surely Toure's campaign deserves a bit more recognition?
Only African on the Ballon d'Or Shortlist
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The fact that Toure is the only African player on FIFA's 23-man Ballon d'Or shortlist should tell you—and indeed the player himself—everything there is to know about his quality.
He might be struggling for form at the moment, and of course he isn't likely to win this award, but Toure's place among the elite players on the planet shouldn't be questioned.
Now he just needs to remember what got him there in the first place.
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