David Silva leaves hospital following Cheikhou Kouyate clash

Manchester City midfielder David Silva has left hospital after undergoing tests following his clash with Cheikhou Kouyate.

The Spaniard was caught by a flailing elbow from Hammers midfielder Kouyate and looked to be in trouble after receiving lengthy treatment.

Silva left the pitch on a stretcher in a neck brace, but he took to Twitter after his hospital visit to confirm he was already home and the initial test results were positive.

He wrote: "Many thanks to all the messages of support, all the tests have gone well and I'm already home.The 3 points is what was important!"

Earlier, City boss Manuel Pellegrini confirmed he needed to have the hospital tests to determine the extent of his facial injuries.

"We will see. He is now at the hospital looking at his cheekbone and at the moment we don’t know,” Pellegrini said.

“It was serious with his neck. He is OK now. We will know more.”

Pellegrini added he does not think Kouyate went out to hurt Silva in the challenge and accepted the decision of the referee to book the West Ham midfielder.

"I always think that a player doesn't want to damage another player," he added.

"The referee was so near and he decided he was unintentional. Nothing more happens."

Sky Sports’ pundit Niall Quinn, however, was not happy with the clash, and believes Kouyate meant to catch Silva with his arm.

Quinn said: “I’m not going to stand here and defend that as a mistake, as an accident. If I’m asked to give my opinion, I think there’s intent there.

“The important thing is David Silva, because it didn’t look good for him at all. Our thoughts are with him and we don’t know exactly how he is yet.”

Sunday's victory moves City within a point of Manchester United and comes at a vital time for under-pressure boss Manuel Pellegrini after a run of six defeats in their previous eight matches.

The Chilean insisted he was not thinking about closing the gap on Louis van Gaal's side, saying their performance against West Ham was more important.

"It was not depending on what Manchester United did yesterday - I think it was very important for our team to win," he said.

"We came from two defeats in a row and always when one is a derby it is worse. It was important to be a consistent team and we played especially, for the first 65 minutes until the injury of David that was a distraction, as a consistent team.

"In other games we have played some minutes but today I think we played the whole game."