Man City vs. Wolves
Venue: Etihad Stadium
Kick off: 2PM
Manchester City play host to Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Premier League this afternoon looking to keep the pressure on Liverpool at the top of the standings.
After dropping five points from their opening five matches, a lot of questions were raised about Man City’s capabilities this season, with most focused on notable mistakes being made at the back.
However, despite the absence of John Stones and Aymeric Laporte, City have responded with four clean sheets from five outings, a record which suggests that they are currently coping without their first-choice centre-backs.
Whether that continues remains to be seen but at a time when there were concerns regarding the character and desire of the champions, they upped their level, and a warning has been sent to Liverpool.
The defeat to Norwich City and the subsequent upturn in form has coincided with Liverpool having to fight harder to maintain their 100 per cent record, arguably an indication that they feel that City are an even bigger threat now that any complacency has disappeared.
Pep Guardiola and his squad have spent the majority of 2019 either leading the pack in the Premier League or being fancied to break their duck in Champions League, but they are now relishing the opportunity to hunt down their rivals.
Coming through the Everton game with maximum points would have given Guardiola great satisfaction, especially with his players needing to be ruthless in the final third when being held by the Toffees heading into the closing stages.
City also had to show plenty of patience in order to eventually overcome Dinamo Zagreb in midweek, with the deadlock not being broken until the introduction of Raheem Sterling from the bench.
The persistence of his team would have impressed Guardiola, and they now face a run of matches in the league which should set them up for the mouth-watering showdown with Liverpool at Anfield on November 10.
Manchester City possible XI: Ederson, Walker, Fernandinho, Otamendi, Zinchenko, Rodri, Gundogan, D.Silva, Mahrez, Jesus, Sterling.
Wolverhampton Wanderers XI: Patricio, Bennett, Coady, Boly, Doherty, Dendoncker, Neves, Saiss, Jonny, Traore, Jimenez.
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