The Wolves vs Manchester City encounter will go down tonight at Molineux, Wolves’ home ground at 8:15 pm (UK time). It is Manchester City’s first Premier League match of the season and the club’s manager, Pep Guardiola would hope to have a good start by returning to Manchester with the three points.
Unfortunately for Manchester City’s Guardiola, the manager of Wolverhampton Wanderers, Nuno Espirito Santo has proven to be one of the toughest coaches Guardiola has had to contend with in his coaching career in the Premier League.
Wolves vs Manchester City: Nuno has been doing better against Guardiola
Nuno had the best of Guardiola last season when the manager led Wolves to defeat a fierce Manchester City side home and away. If Wolves should continue with such a trend tonight, Nuno would be the first football manager to defeat Guardiola in three successive matches.
This is a record Guardiola would not want to happen tonight giving the fact that his rival Liverpool’s Jurgen Klopp has led Liverpool to win against Chelsea’s Frank Lampard on Sunday to make it two wins in two matches.
Apart from probably winning the Champions League, the major target for Manchester City this season is to regain the Premier League title. To do that, they have to win a match like tonight’s game. If they fail to win, City will commence the season chasing after Liverpool on the league table just like in the previous season.
However, based on the form of Manchester City especially towards the end of the 2019-2020 season where the club won five successive league matches, scoring 21 goals and conceding only one, Wolves should not be a problem to the 2018-2019 league champions. But it would not be a walk in the park for Pep Guardiola and his men.
It is worthy of note that Manchester City have won their first match of the season 9 successive times which is overwhelming stats Wolves can only dream of. If City win tonight, that would make it 10 times in a row the Citizens won their first match of the season.
On the other hand, Wolves have already played their first match of this season which they won 2-0 against Sheffield United. In fact, the club which finished 7th on the league table last season, scored the two goals within the first six minutes of the match, making it Premier League’s quickest start in history.
Team News – Manchester City
Manchester City will be without the club-record goalscorer Sergio Aguero who have been battling knee injury before the end of last season. The manager of the side, Pep Guardiola has confirmed that the Argentina international could stay out of football for two months due to the injury.
Also, Riyad Mahrez has just recoverd from coronavirus and could be available for tonight’s game, same as Aymeric Laporte who just recovered from the same virus but battling with match fitness.
Bernardo Silva might be unavailable due to fitness issues. While Phil Foden could be used at some point in the match after breaking England national team’s protocol in Iceland because of Icelandic ladies.
Manchester City Probable lineup:
Ederson; Walker, Garcia, Ake, Mendy; De Bruyne, Rodri, Gundogan; Mahrez, Jesus, Sterling
Team News – Wolves
Jonny who has been sidelined due to fitness issues will not be available for tonight’s game. Besides Jonny, coach Nuno has no other injury worries going into the match.
However, he will be without his superstar player Diogo Jota who has just sealed a transfer deal with Liverpool.
Wolves probable lineup:
Patricio; Boly, Coady, Saiss; Traore, Neves, Moutinho, Marcal; Podence, Jimenez, Neto
