Yaya Toure not surrending title defence

By Joe Fish, ReporterPublished: 26 February 2013 12:30 AM

Yaya Toure insists that champions Manchester City will not give up hope of retaining the Premier League, despite the current 12-point gap to rivals United at the top of the table.

Yaya Toure has insisted that Manchester City will fight until the last day of the season in an attempt to hold onto their Premier League title.

The Ivorian scored in City's 2-0 win over Chelsea on Sunday, a result that cut the gap on table-toppers Manchester United to 12 points.

Despite the sizable deficit, Toure has claimed that the players owe it to the Citizens supporters to not give up the chase of their local rivals.

"We are very pleased with the win because that is the most important thing for me. We have to keep on going and try and win all our games because we know United are in the top spot," he told CityTV.

"For the football club and the fans, you can't give up now. We know we have a big calendar, more difficult than them [United], but we have to keep on going and try and win matches and not let any points slip away.

"We needed 12 wins and we have to keep on going because we don't know the future and you can't say it is finished. We have 11 games remaining and in sport you never know what can happen in the future."

Roberto Mancini's side overcame an eight-point gap to pip United to the Premier League trophy on the final day of last season.