Yaya Toure, who had been frozen out from the Manchester City team, finally earned a recall and made his first Premier League start under the Catalan coach, scoring the opening goal in the tie and later won the game in the 83rd minute with another goal.
Yaya Toure scored in his first Premier League appearance of the season after being named in Manchester City’s starting XI for the match with Crystal Palace.
The Ivory Coast midfielder played a neat one-two with Nolito before thumping the ball high into the Palace net.
Toure has found himself out of favour since Pep Guardiola arrived at the club in the off-season and has not featured since starting the second leg of the Champions League play-off against Steaua Bucharest in August.
The midfielder’s outspoken representative, Dimitri Seluk, claimed Guardiola had humiliated his client by omitting him from City’s Champions League group-stage squad, triggering a war of words with the Spaniard.
The 33-year-old’s City contract is due to expire at the end of the campaign and it had appeared likely he would leave the club before the off-season transfer window closed.
However, he apologised this month to Guardiola for Seluk’s outburst and has now earned a return to the first team.
Vincent Kompany and Bacary Sagna also return to the side for the trip to Selhurst Park, while Ilkay Gundogan and John Stones have been rested ahead of Wednesday’s Champions League clash away to Borussia Monchengladbach.