MANCHESTER -- Yaya Toure says manager Pep Guardiola will not allow Manchester City to be complacent after he tore into his players in the dressing room following the 1-0 victory over Feyenoord on Tuesday.
City had already qualified for the Champions League knockout stages but needed an 88th-minute goal from Raheem Sterling to maintain their 100 percent record and secure top spot.
Guardiola's side secured a club-record 17th successive victory but Toure says they were not good enough against the Eredivisie champions, who are bottom of Group F without a single point.
"It's human nature that sometimes you are a little bit lazy and think you're super or arrogance can go in your head, especially when you are young," Toure told reporters.
"You look beautiful and think you're going to be the best. You see Feyenoord, they came and were difficult.
"The manager at the end was quite angry with the team. We can do better than that. We played lazily. You have to respect the opponent and the way to do that is to score goals."
Guardiola made seven changes from the side that beat Leicester City on Saturday to maintain their eight-point lead at the top of the Premier League.
It was only Toure's third start of the season and the midfielder says the players that come into the team must take their opportunity to help keep up the side's momentum.
"The way Feyenoord set up we had to take our time -- be patient and recycle the ball," he added. "When you don't score it's quite difficult. We've been lucky not to concede in the first half. After that we continued in the second half. We found the difference.
"Sometimes, when the manager makes changes, then maybe in your head we're not so focused and we don't concentrate. We miss easy passes and we miss easy chances.
"The manager said so in the dressing room. After half-time you saw everyone pressed high and tried to make the difference."
Toure was a major part of the City side that won their first Premier League title in 2011-12, when they had the same record from the opening 12 games.
But the season started to unravel in late November before they fought back to take the title with Sergio Aguero's unforgettable injury-time winner against QPR.
"My memories are that we have to stay stronger and take any chance possible," Toure said of the comparisons to that season.
"Every team are going to start to defend and if we score early then they are going to have to come up.
"Sometimes it's going to be tough, we're going to draw like Wolves [in the EFL Cup], but we have to keep going. The momentum is brilliant at the moment."