Wolves welcome the defending Premier League champions Manchester City to Molineux this weekend. It will be a big ask to try and stop the free-scoring City, who are early favourites to defend the Premier League title. Wolves come into the game on the back of a disappointing 2-0 result against Leicester, whilst City blew Huddersfield away with a 6-1 victory.
Wolves Host Free-Scoring Manchester City
Big Test For Wolves
This game will be a big test for Wolves, despite playing well and having the majority of possession in their previous two games. They will consider themselves unlucky with the outcome of the Leicester game. Nuno’s side failed to take their chances against Leicester, something they can’t do against Pep Guardiola’s side.
Manchester City come into this game winning two out of two, outplaying Arsenal and dominating Huddersfield. Having scored eight goals in their first two games, City will be looking to apply pressure to Wolves. Nuno’s side have looked vulnerable under pressure against both Everton and Leicester.
Can Wolves Stop Manchester City?
Wolves will look to stop the momentum that City have picked up so early on in the season. With both sides looking to play possession football, Nuno will probably change tactics and look to set up on the counter-attack. City have averaged 63% possession whilst Wolves have averaged 53% from their first two games.
Wolves will look to step up defensively; they have struggled with the attacks down the wings. That will be a concern for Nuno, especially coming up against a City side who are free-scoring already this season. Nuno will need to come up with a plan to stop Man City’s Benjamin Mendy, who has three assists to his name already, more than anyone else, with all three assists coming from the left wing.
With a lot of fire power in Pep Guardiola’s squad, there has been no player more important to the City squad over the last few years than Sergio Aguero. Coming fresh off an hat-trick against Huddersfield, it will be up to the Wolves defence to try and stop him. Sergio Aguero has scored 146 goals in only 208 games for City, averaging 0.70 goals per game and a mightily impressive 42% shooting accuracy.
Did You Know?
In the last two seasons, the previous campaign’s Championship winner have won both times they have hosted the reigning Premier League champion. Burnley beat Leicester City 1-0 in 2016/17 and Newcastle United overcame Chelsea 3-0 in 2017/18.
Wolves are targeting their first victory in 17 Premier League matches. They have never had a top-flight winless run longer than 16 games.
Man City are aiming to become the first reigning Premier League champions to win their first three matches since the start of 2011/12, when Man United managed that feat.
Team News
With Matt Doherty having been forced off against Leicester, he will be a doubt. He’s joined on the injury list by Ivan Cavaleiro, who’s also ruled out and Leander Dendoncker is still lacking match fitness. Nuno could hand a home debut start to record signing Adama Traore, who looked impressive in his first 45 minutes of action.
Predicted Line-Ups
Wolves: Patricio, Doherty, Bennett, Coady, Boly, Jonny, Neves, Moutinho, Traore, Jimenez, Jota.
Manchester City: Ederson, Stones, Kompany, Laporte, Walker, Bernardo Silva, Fernandinho, David Silva, Mendy, Aguero, Jesus.
Prediction
It’s going to be a hard game and with the calibre of player that City have in their ranks, they will need to be at their very best to get anything out of the game.
Wolves 1-3 Manchester City
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