Tuesday 22 December 2015 14:13, UK
Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher was critical of Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure's "selfish" performance against Arsenal on Monday Night Football.
City lost 2-1 at the Emirates to slip four points behind second-placed Arsenal and six adrift of leaders Leicester City in the Premier League title race.
However, despite Toure halving the home side's lead with a brilliant strike eight minutes from time, it was too little, too late as far as City were concerned.
And Carragher was disappointed that the Ivory Coast international only came to life in closing stages of the game after getting his name on the scoresheet.
"I think it is a joke to be honest," he said on MNF. "I mean the goal is just a great goal, that is nothing to do with running, or different things.
"It wound me up the fact that he got the goal at the end and in commentary Davie [Provan] was saying: 'He has run the game the last 20 minutes.'
"It is like he comes alive because he thinks, 'We have got a goal and have a chance of me getting a bit of glory and being involved'."
You talk about one of your major players, your leaders in a dressing room, that is unbelievably selfish the way he has played
The former Liverpool and England defender also questioned City coach Manuel Pellegrini's decision to set his team up with Toure detailed to look after in-form Arsenal playmaker Mesut Ozil, rather than the more mobile Fabian Delph.
"They lost the game tonight and one of the major reasons was the space Ozil had behind him," said Carragher. "Now it is nothing new, I am not saying anything we have not said the last two or three years.
"But it just comes back to that fact that he just wants to switch it on when he thinks he can get a goal. And you talk about one of your major players, your leaders in a dressing room, that is unbelievably selfish the way he has played tonight.
"I think Yaya can still bully teams from central midfield, especially at home, but these games - why did you buy Fabian Delph? You buy him for those games, that energy, that aggression in central midfield.
"You are playing against one of the best players, one of the most creative players in Europe tonight, and you put Delph on the left to look after Arsenal's right-back. I could not believe it before the game.
"And then what we have seen in the game, I am not saying it proved me right, but I could not believe it - Yaya Toure can look after Ozil? You know that before the game, you did not need the proof tonight that he was going to let him go free."
