Toure - No giving up

Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure is determined to keep up the fight in this season's Barclays Premier League title race - for the Blues fans who have made him feel so much at home since he joined the club.

It is looking like an increasingly tall order for second-placed City to retain the title this term, with last weekend's 2-2 draw against Liverpool meaning they are now nine points behind leaders Manchester United with 13 league games remaining.

Toure - back in the last few days after a month away at the African Nations Cup with Ivory Coast - is certainly not about to abandon hope, though. "I feel like I'm home again," Toure told City's official website.

The 29-year-old knows, after he and his City team-mates pipped United to the title last season having been eight points behind them with six fixtures to go, that nothing has been settled yet.

And Toure is also driven on by a desire to make City supporters happy, having been embraced by them so enthusiastically over the last two and a half years following his move from Barcelona.

Toure added: "I met some City fans before my flight from Paris to Manchester and they said 'welcome home, Yaya' and they said they wanted me to help the team and bring happiness to our supporters. That's what I aim to do."

Regarding Ivory Coast's quarter-final exit at the African Nations Cup, Toure added: "Of course we were disappointed.

"We tried our best but it wasn't good enough this time, and now I am only focusing on City, my club.

"I'm only looking forward and not back and that means the Premier League and nothing else at this moment. It's good to be back."