Man City 5 Wigan 0: Pellegrini hails Toure after third-round rout

Manuel Pellegrini singled out Yaya Toure for special praise after the Ivorian helped fire Manchester City past Wigan and into the fourth round of the League Cup.

The midfielder, who came on at the start of the second half, curled home a delightful free-kick in the 76th minute after City found themselves 2-0 up thanks to goals either side of the break from Edin Dzeko and Stevan Jovetic.

Jovetic then netted his second of the night before Jesus Navas completed the rout in the 86th minute.

“Yaya is an excellent player – if he adds goals from free-kicks and in open play like last Sunday, well I think it’s important for us,” said Pellegrini.

“Yaya stays normally after our daily work to practice free-kicks. He’s in a good moment – it’s not normal to always score with free-kicks.

“He’s a very important player for the team – he and all of the players are playing with trust and he’s a very important for us.”

The 5-0 victory means City have scored nine goals in their last two games following their 4-1 thrashing of Manchester United in the Premier League on Sunday.

And Pellegrini was delighted with his side’s professional approach to Tuesday’s tie.

“I spoke with the players before this game, telling them that we must always try and play in the same way as we did on Sunday,” said Pellegrini.

“We can change names but, for me, it was important to see today the same team we saw on Sunday – the same philosophy, the same intensity and of course, scoring 12 goals in a week is very important.”

Pellegrini also praised £22m summer signing Jovetic after he netted his first goals for the club.

“It’s important for Stevan to score and play well,” he said. “He wasn’t playing because he had some physical problems at the start of the season but the last two weeks he’s been working hard.”