• Manchester City man keen to make up for 'lost' six months
• 'We had 24 great players at Arsenal and here is the same'
Kolo Touré has likened Manchester City to the Arsenal "Invincibles" he played for in 2003-04 and admitted a league title medal this season would compensate for his suspension for failing a drug test.
The Ivory Coast international lost six months of his career last year, a period that included City's triumph in the FA Cup, after becoming the first player in the Premier League to give a positive drug test since Chelsea's Adrian Mutu.
Touré, who admitted taking an unspecified substance contained in water tablets he claimed were obtained from his wife, marked the one-year anniversary of his ban by appearing as a substitute in City's 2-0 defeat of Bolton on Saturday. The 30-year-old believes helping City to their first championship since 1968 would go some way to amending for the bleakest spell of his career.
"The situation is very different for me now, that's true," said Touré. "My ban started on the 3 March. I'm very happy now. I was really angry last time, but life is like that – there are hard times and good times and when the good times come you've just got to enjoy it."
Asked if the title would ease the disappointment of his six-month ban, the defender replied: "Yes, of course. The past is the past. We all struggle in life at a certain point. I think what happened made me a better person, a stronger person. I just realised how important that time is when you are able to play on the pitch, even for five or 10 minutes. I'm just giving 100% now every time I contribute to the team and showing as much quality as I have, to try to help the team to win the title."
City are two points clear of Manchester United with 11 matches remaining and despite conceding the pressure will mount during the run-in, Touré believes Roberto Mancini has assembled a squad that compares to the Arsenal team he helped remain unbeaten en route to the 2003-04 title.
Touré added: "The quality is the same because we had 24 great players at Arsenal and here is the same, we also have 24 great players. Here you can change any player. David Silva didn't play [against Bolton], but we still won the game. [Sergio] Agüero didn't play, but we still won the game.
"In our time at Arsenal it was like this. Dennis Bergkamp was on the bench, Kanu was on the bench, but we still managed to win the games. That's really important when you have a big squad like that, that you can change, give some players a rest and this can be really helpful come the end of the season."