Man City Match Zone

City Pursue Liverpool Hunt With Easy Taming Of Wolves

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Johnny On The Spot: #IMPERIOUS. You won’t see many one sided games controlled as sophisticatedly as Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City unleashed tonight. Well beaten Wolves are no longer a club in El Gaffer’s managerial career that he has faced more than once but never beaten. They leave town tonight knowing full well that they have escaped an absolute thrashing.

City set out in wildfire form burning through the visitors at will. The scene had been set and a superb laser pass from Aymeric Laporte to Sané set the bar high for the night, carving a pathway to Gabriel Jesus’ opener. The goal was simple brilliance in itself, the razor sharp timing of the jet heeled German’s run continuing Jesus’s remarkable resurrection.

Nuno Espirito Santo’s team’s difficult task was further compounded by the expulsion of Willy Boly, the man who last August admitted hand balling Wolves goal against City at Molyneux. The Frenchman was correctly given a straight red for a desperately high studs up challenge on Bernardo. The Blues continued to pile forward and were further rewarded for their endeavour with a confidently struck Jesus penalty. 10 man Wolves went in at the break breathing heavily but immensely fortunate to be only two goals down.

That said, as the relentless pattern of City’s uber-domination endured into the second half, I don’t think it is being hyper-critical to question City’s enduring profligacy based upon goals to chances in recent Premier League fixtures. A hard working Wolves persisted with an adventurous if perhaps naive high forward line and were asking for a thumping, but time and again despite breathtaking approach play, the Champions missed the target. Without a doubt, goal difference is likely to have a big say come the day of reckoning in this title race.

I further perceive that in our niggling left full back area that Danilo, despite being often heavily involved in the final third is not the player Fabian Delph or Zinchenko are from an attacking perspective.

The combination of an otherwise fantastic City’s wayward radar and Wolves tremendous effort to match the Champions work rate meant that the Old Gold avoided a six or seven niller. Guardiola was able to call upon Kevin de Bruyne’s accuracy to put a fairer reflection upon the goal stats.

Yet, all things considered, the thunderous win over Liverpool that started our year appears pivotal, having galvanised City back to their scintillating best. Every time they charge forward they look like scoring. The hunt is clear and present and experience will tell, of that I am convinced.

Yet another record was broken for the centurions tonight. David Silva’s 267th appearance is an all time high for a City player in The Premier League, eclipsing Joe Hart’s achievement. Hats off to Spanish Dave!

Huddersfield, YOU are next.

JB’s Man Of The Match: The switched on Laporte who played intelligently, remained hyper-tight on his man all evening and looks a snip at £57,000,000 from Atletico Bilbao.

Manchester City
3 – 0
Wolverhampton Wanderers

The Etihad Stadium

FA Premier League

8:00 pm

Referee: Craig Pawson of South Yorkshire

Manchester City Wolverhampton Wanderers
Gabriel Jesus (10', 39' pen), Coady (78' og)
31 Ederson 11 Rui Patrício
2 Kyle Walker 5 Ryan Bennett
5 John Stones 16 Conor Coady
14 Aymeric Laporte 15 Willy Boly
 
3 Danilo 2 Matt Doherty
20 Bernardo Silva 28 João Moutinho Gibbs-White 72'
25 Fernandinho
 
8 Ruben Neves
21 David Silva De Bruyne 62' 32 Leander Dendoncker
7 Raheem Sterling 19 Castro Otto
33 Gabriel Jesus Agüero 76' 9 Raul Jiménez Traoré 45'
19 Leroy Sané Gündogan 74' 18 Diego Jota Saïss 59'

Substitutes

8 Ilkay Gündogan 7 Ivan Cavaleiro
10 Sergio Agüero 10 Hélder Costa
17 Kevin De Bruyne 17 Morgan Gibbs-White
18 Fabian Delph 21 John Ruddy
26 Riyad Mahrez 27 Roman Saïss
30 Nicolas Otamendi 29 Ruben Vinagre
49 Aro Muric 37 Adama Traoré

Game Statistics

22 Goal attempts 2
8 On Target 0
12 Corners 1
5 Fouls 2
1 Yellow Cards 0
0 Red Cards 1
78 % 22

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