The defending Premier League champions travel to the West Midlands as they take on Wolverhampton Wanderers looking to continue their rich vein of form.
Given the recent international break, it’s been two weeks since City took to the field, when they took three points from a strong Fulham side. Pep Guardiola’s men would get the three points as a result of a brace from Mateo Kovacic and a solo effort from Jeremy Doku.
This is not to say that Fulham didn’t put up a fight as the Cottagers maintained 41 per cent possession, as well as Rodrigo Muniz bringing the game to within just one goal difference in the dying embers, making it a cagey affair for the hosts.
On the other side of Sunday’s ticket sit Wolves, who have got off to a rough start, failing to get a win through the first seven games. In their last match, Gary O’Neil’s side fell to Brentford ina 5-3 away defeat as the Bees had five individual scorers at the Gtech Community Stadium.
As Wolves have struggled to start the season, amounting only a single point, going into Sunday they find themselves sitting in the relegation zone at the bottom of the table, right above recently promoted Southampton.
Ahead of Sunday afternoon’s contest at Molineux, here is everything you need to know!
Match Details
The match between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Manchester City is scheduled to take place on Sunday 20 October, with kick-off scheduled for 14:00 (UK).
Team News
Kevin De Bruyne will remain sidelined against Wolves as the Belgian international continues to recover from his groin injury that he suffered against Inter Milan in the opening match of the Champions League.
According to the Catalan manager, Nathan Ake has also returned to training alongside the aforementioned midfielder with the team, and might be fit to travel to the West Midlands on Sunday afternoon.
“Yesterday (Thursday) Nathan did his first training with the team,” explained Guardiola while speaking to the press on Friday afternoon, “Maybe can travel but to start is not ready.”
Manuel Akanji, Savinho, and Ederson all had slower starts to their return to club duties in the week having been granted a day rest following international action, but all three are in contention to be involved this weekend.
Wolves are set to be without Hwang Hee-Chan and Boubacar Traore given that the partnership has been out for some time and remain some ways off of the pitch.
Head to Head
In the past five meetings between the two sides, it is Manchester City who have come out as the dominant force, winning four of the five matches but losing their last outing at Molineux last season.
Statistics
Wolves won this exact fixture 2-1 last season but haven’t won consecutive home league meetings with Manchester City since a run of three between 1982 and 1996.
Manchester City have won seven of their last eight Premier League meetings with Wolves, scoring 25 goals across these games. The only exception was a 2-1 loss at Molineux in September last season.
Wolves have failed to win any of their opening seven games of a league season for the first time since 2004-05 in the Championship. Only in three previous campaigns have they had a longer winless run from the start of a league season: 1922-23 (8), 1926-27 (10), and 1983-84 (14).
Manchester City are unbeaten in 30 Premier League games (W24 D6), the joint-longest run in their league history (also 30 from April 2017 to January 2018). In English top-flight history, on only six occasions has a side gone more than 30 matches without losing, most recently Liverpool’s run of 44 games from January 2019 to February 2020.
Wolves are the only side to lose all of their home games in the Premier League this season (3/3). Never before in their league history have they lost their opening four home games of a campaign.
How to Watch
For viewers in the United Kingdom, you can view Sunday’s match on Sky Sports.
For viewers in the United States, you can view the match on USA Network, with kick-off slated for 9:00 a.m. EST.
You can find full global TV listings for the match here!
City Xtra will have full live coverage available on our X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, and Instagram channels throughout Wednesday evening, with content also provided on cityxtra.co.uk and YouTube!
