Man City v Wolverhampton Wanderers

England Premier League – Etihad Stadium Saturday 16.00 CET

Team News:

Man City: Defensive crisis for City with Josko Gvardiol (CB) John Stones (CB) Ruben Dias (CB) and all out. They will also be without Mateo Kovacic (CM) and Oscar Bobb (RM) and Savinho (RM) while Matheus Nunes (RB) and Nico Gonzalez (CM) are rated doubtful. Bernando Silva (AM) and new signing Marc Guehi (CB) will make his debut.

Wolves: Have starters Jean-Ricner Bellegarde (CM) and Toti Gomes (CB) out injured while backup Tawanda Chirewa (AM) will miss out too. Fer Lopez (AM) although not a starter either is likely to exit the club shortly and return to Celta Vigo.

Formations:

Man City have moved to a 4-1-4-1 formation lately trying to boss the midfield and getting width with Doku and Semanyo. They will have a green looking defence here with Guehi and Khusanov likely flanked by Lewis & O’Reilly. If Nunes is fit, he will replace Lewis on the right.

Wolves – Mainly stuck with a 3-5-2 formation and will try to flood the middle of the park.  Andre likes to get into the opposition. The two wing backs are mainly defensive. They have shown some signs of improvement lately and have a real danger in Mateus Mane. Strand Larsen could replace Arokodare up front.

Statistics:

Referee: Farai Hallam (Average cards 3.70 Yellow 0.04 Red per game)

Match Preview:

Manchester City are in a poor form of late, which crazily coincides with the return of 2024 Balon d’Or winning DM Rodri. Erling Haaland is on his worst ever run since his Molde days with zero goals from open play in 8 games. A huge injury list resulting in a first ever back four playing together for City. In opposition a Wolves side with just 8 points all season, however they have shown some small shoots of optimism in recent games with an unbeaten run of 5 games. In that time, we saw West Ham soundly defeated and 6 goals in a rout at home to Shrewsbury in the FA Cup. Strand Larsen the hero there with a hat-trick.

Betting Preview:

Pep Guardiola would be pulling his hair out (if he had any) after recent heavy losses to Man Utd and Bodo/Glimt. Defensive issues mean Wolves could score here but you would have to fancy City to overcome one of the worst defences in the league. Both score is an option while Man City to Win & Both score offers good value.