City open with Jekyll & Hyde performance in Wolves win

Manchester City showed the best and worst of their abilities in a 3-1 opening day win over Wolves, with first half goals Kevin De Bruyne and Phil Foden setting them on their way to a winning start.

Wolves helped City on their way to a 10th consecutive opening day win, first with Conor Coady nearly giving away a penalty on Raheem Sterling, before Romain Saiss made sure with under 20 minutes gone, taking down De Bruyne who slotted excellently past Rui Patricio’s fingertips.

City dominated the half, and soon after got their reward, with Foden converting Sterling’s pullback for a 2-0 lead, but for the second 45, the story was very different.

Wolves had numerous chances winning the ball back and playing it over City’s defence, reminiscent of the Manchester side’s second half collapse against Lyon in the Champions League.

And after Daniel Podence and Pedro Neto wasted a string of decent chances with City clearly missing the recently sold Diogo Jota, it was left to star-man Raul Jimenez to get them back in the game, nodding home Podence’s corner with 12 minutes to go.

Wolves struggled to create as many odd-man chances as they did before the Mexican’s goal, and deep into stoppage time, Gabriel Jesus ended the contest with a fabulously worked finish past Patricio.

Nuno Espirito Santo will be disappointed his side didn’t show the same fight as they did in their wins over City last season, while Guardiola will be hoping it was just opening day rust, with a defence pairing of John Stones and new signing Nathan Ake looking far from rock solid.

🆚One of the #PL games of the season last time out, #Wolves host #ManCity tonight, with key men Jiménez & Sterling set to play a big roles again.

Nuno Espírito Santo has 2 wins & 1 loss in 5 meetings with Pep Guardiola, & will hope to continue that impressive record at Molineux. pic.twitter.com/rRdEIJqeVQ

— playmakerstats (@playmaker_EN) September 21, 2020