by Simon Williams, at Villa Park

Manuel Pellegrini claimed he had no concerns over Yaya Toure’s early season form following speculation the midfielder wanted to leave Manchester City in the summer.

The Ivorian, whose performances have come under scrutiny in recent weeks, opened the scoring on 82 minutes for the Citizens in their 2-0 win over Aston Villa at Villa Park.

Sergio Aguero wrapped up the points six minutes later for the visitors. The goal was the Argentinian’s 57th for City and is now just one away from becoming their joint-leading goal-scorer in the Premier League.

After Saturday’s game Pellegrini was quick to praise the contribution of Toure.

“It is very important for him to score his first goal. He is an experienced player. He can be criticised one or two weeks, but I know perfectly the way he thinks and the way he can play, so I never had a problem about that,” he said.

“Yaya is one of the best midfielders (in the Premier League) without any doubt.

“Maybe like any player he can have better games or not so good games. But he is a very important midfielder and I never have any doubts about his performance.”

Pellegrini also insisted that the rumours surrounding Toure’s future at the end of last season resulted from a “misunderstanding of words.”

“He didn’t have any problem with his commitment with the club,” said the Chilean. “He has a lot of different things in his private life but he didn’t want to go anywhere.”

For Villa the defeat was their third in a row following a promising start to the campaign.

“We have played the top four from last season — Champions League teams,” said manager Paul Lambert.

“I have never known a run to be quite as gruesome as that one. The fixtures have been pretty unkind to us.”