City strolled to a 5-0 victory over Fulham as Yaya Toure netted a hat-trick at the Etihad stadium to keep our Premier League title bid on track. Toure's first career hat-trick and goals from Fernandinho and Martin Demichelis fired City to a commanding victory over 10-man Fulham.
City struggled to find their best form in the first half but Toure provided the crucial breakthrough in the 26th minute with a coolly-taken penalty after Alvaro Negredo had been fouled by Fernando Amorebieta.
Amorebieta was then sent off early in the second half after bringing down David Silva to give City a second spot-kick, which Toure again tucked away.
The home side poured forward in wave after wave of attacks and Toure claimed his hat-trick with a majestic curling strike from 25 yards on 65 minutes.
The goal took him to 20 goals in all competitions -a statistic which highlights his claims to the titleof the Footballer of the Year this season.
With the victory safe, Pellegrini subsequently withdrew Toure, Silva and Samir Nasri, but the scoring continued.
Fernandinho scored with a searing near post strike on 83 minutes before Demichelis made it 5-0 with a tap-in from Stevan Jovetic's cross three minutes later.
City seemed to use up little steam but still easily coasted to victory. So it's one down,ten to go and as we keep getting reminded the title is ours to lose!!