Arsene Wenger is left to rue the one Toure that got away

While Arsene Wenger remains as unlikely to open the coffers as a high street bank for a first-time property buyer, City continue their policy of buying up the game's top real estate to take advantage of their backers' bottomless capital.

The contrast is stark and, in a delicious coincidence, has been further underlined in the build-up to this fixture by confirmation Wolfsburg striker Edin Dzeko will move to Eastlands for around £27million.

Dzeko joins a galaxy of star names on big wages and high expectations but the story could have been very different for one such luminary among City's ranks.

Gnegneri Yaya Toure spent a period at Arsenal as a 15-year-old and returned to play trial games in 2003 and 2005. Had international law decreed differently, he could have been the natural successor to Patrick Vieira and provided the steel in the Gunners midfield that has been lacking for years.

As it was, a work permit application failed because he was not yet a full international and he signed professional terms instead with Belgian club Beveren, before Arsenal tried again only to be denied a second time by the impetuousness of youth as the situation dragged on.

There were to be no such hitches with older brother Kolo, two years his senior, who later joined Arsenal in 2002 having represented the Ivory Coast, but Toure junior embarked upon a career with Ukrainian side Metalurh Donetsk, Olympiakos, Monaco and Barcelona, where he found himself ostracised and then rescued by City's liferaft full of cash.

Instead of becoming yet another famous Wenger signing plucked from obscurity into unlikely stardom, Toure has become a symbol for the largesse (and cynics would say downright greed) that has afflicted the modern game with wages in excess of a staggering £220,000 a week.

Toure now perhaps represents the antithesis of Wenger's philosophy and it is his journey that demonstrates the ideological contrast between Arsenal's cultivation of youth and City's fast-track to glory.

Whichever wins out this evening will go a long way to validating the path they have chosen and, in Toure, City are already witnessing a tangible return. Along with James Milner and Carlos Tevez, Toure has the most assists for City in the League with five as Roberto Mancini has taken the handbrake off to a degree by allowing the 27-year-old greater licence to roam forward.

City's three holding central midfielders have earned Mancini a reputation for caution but it would be dangerous to underestimate their capacity to attack and Toure's positioning often dictates the level of their ambition.

"Yaya has made a big impact — he is a top-class player," said Wenger. "He came out of a frustrating season at Barcelona because he didn't play last season at all but the year before he played and was very influential. Last year [at Barca] he lost his position to Busquets and he is the kind of player who needs to play.

"I know him well, since he was 15. He is a top-class talent. He was here as a young boy. We cannot get players in if they are not internationals — he had no work permit and was too young.

"We tried to wait until when he was in Belgium, we tried to get him a European passport. He was not patient enough and left for Metalurh Donetsk."

City's approach inevitably produces excess. While Toure's exorbitant salary will perhaps forever require justification — or "if we go into that debate, we will not finish today!" as the Arsenal manager puts it — at least is given the chance to try to earn his money on the pitch each week, unlike Emmanuel Adebayor.

The Togo international has fallen out of form and favour at Eastlands in a spectacular slump that hit new depths yesterday in a training ground bust-up with Kolo Toure, who also left Arsenal in 2009.

While Kolo can expect a warm reception this evening, Adebayor will be barracked even if he does not feature, as expected, as the list of those who question his character grows ever longer.

"Attitude wise we never had a problem with Adebayor," said Wenger. "He is a top-class player and had a good season last year. I don't know why he is not involved anymore.

"Adebayor and Mancini could give you a better explanation."

Both City and Arsenal will be looking for answers to that and much wider ranging questions this evening, for although their paths may be very different, the goal remains the same.