Manchester City came from behind to beat Swansea City and keep the gap between themselves and Premier League leaders Chelsea to eight points.

City, third in the league, were stunned inside 10 minutes as Wilfried Bony chested down Nathan Dyer's sublime pass and finished calmly.

The champions levelled when Stevan Jovetic clipped in Jesus Navas's cross.

Gael Clichy hit the bar for the hosts before Yaya Toure latched on to Fernandinho's back heel for the winner.

Bafetimbi Gomis poked wide for the visitors and Jonjo Shelvey's deflected free-kick was inches away from levelling in the dying seconds.

City, who entertain Bayern Munich in the Champions League on Tuesday, move a point behind second-placed Southampton, who are in action on Monday at Aston Villa.

While they have not been at the top of their game, they had only lost once in their previous eight league matches and started the day with two more points than they had at this stage in last season's title-winning campaign.

The Swans had lost only once in their last six league matches and knew victory at Etihad Stadium would take them level on points with their hosts.

Home striker Sergio Aguero had scored 13 goals in his last 13 Premier League games, but it was Swansea's Bony who made the first mark on the game with his fifth goal in six league matches.

The Ivorian, who signed a new deal at the Liberty Stadium this week, controlled Dyer's audacious chipped through ball before slotting past goalkeeper Joe Hart for Swansea's first ever goal at the Etihad.

Swansea had already won in Manchester this season, a 2-1 opening-day victory at United, but were without a win on their travels in the Premier League since.

Despite that lean run, they had not conceded the first goal in any of their league away games this season and, sure enough, their opener again proved a false dawn as Jovetic prodded in the leveller from Navas's cross.

The hosts then pushed for the lead as Aguero saw a shot saved by Lukasz Fabianski, before Clichy had a fierce 30-yard strike brilliantly tipped onto the bar by the goalkeeper.

The breakthrough came when Toure combined with Fernandinho to finish low under Fabianski just past the hour mark.

Nerves were frayed as Swansea pushed for the leveller but, holding on, City achieved the win that was needed having won just one of their past six games in all competitions.

Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini: "I am very happy because we won the game. We played very well and had a lot of chances to score the third goal and we defended well.

"It was a difficult start because they scored with their only chance in the first half. We are absolutely confident in the way we play and sure we are going to win the game.

"If we scored the third goal we could play well and not so tight. We had the chances but didn't score. We have to play seven games more before the end of December and we have to fight for all of them."

Swansea manager Garry Monk: "We are a little disappointed but they are a very good side and they had their chances. We had a couple of chances at the end we should have taken. I am just very happy with the journey we are on. We are competing in every game.

"We got a good goal and the mentality changed a little bit as we tried to protect. It is a learning process for us, the players are fully committed. We pushed an exceptional team very, very close.

"Of course City will push for the title, I don't doubt that."