Manchester City ended their Premier League winless streak with a controlled 2-0 victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers at the Etihad, two first-half strikes doing the damage and a calmer second-half spell seeing Pep Guardiola’s side manage the game to a clean sheet.
There was a bit of edge in the air before kick-off, the kind that comes when a champion’s rhythm goes missing for long enough that every pass is suddenly judged like courtroom evidence. Guardiola responded with rotation and a statement selection call, leaving Erling Haaland on the bench and asking his newer pieces to solve the puzzle. Omar Marmoush and Antoine Semenyo obliged, while debutant Marc Guehi helped keep the back door bolted.
Wolves arrived bottom, but not broken. Rob Edwards’ side had shown signs of life in recent weeks, and they set out in a compact shape designed to squeeze the middle and make City play around them rather than through them. For a while, that plan held in spirit, if not in score.
City set the tempo early, moving the ball with purpose and looking to stretch Wolves laterally before snapping passes into the half-spaces. Guehi almost wrote the perfect opening line to his City story inside five minutes, meeting a corner and steering a header on target, only for Jose Sa to gather comfortably.
The warning shot became a wound in the sixth minute. Matheus Nunes, facing the club he once represented and receiving a running soundtrack of boos for it, found room down the right and delivered a wicked cross into the corridor that defenders hate. Marmoush attacked it like he’d been invited personally, darting across his marker to prod home from close range. It was the sort of striker’s goal that looks simple only after it has happened: movement first, finish second, celebration last.
Wolves were rattled, and City smelled it. A ball over the top soon released Semenyo, but his effort was hit too straight at Sa, a missed chance that briefly kept Wolves within touching distance. Rayan Cherki then found space inside the box and lifted over, City’s pressure building into that familiar, suffocating pattern where the away side starts clearing not because it’s wise, but because it’s all that’s left.
Wolves’ biggest issue was what happened when they actually won the ball. The first-half transitions were there in theory but messy in execution, passes forced, angles wrong, the final third arriving like a sentence that keeps forgetting its own ending. When the visitors did work possession into City territory, they struggled to pick the pass that would turn threat into a shot.
City, meanwhile, should have been out of sight before the break. Marmoush struck the woodwork when he cut inside and drove an effort that came back off the post, the ball rebounding kindly for Sa. That moment bled into the afternoon’s big talking point: a lengthy VAR check for a possible handball against Yerson Mosquera. Referee Farai Hallam, on his Premier League debut, was sent to the pitchside monitor but stuck with his on-field decision and waved away City’s appeals, the incident ending without a penalty.
If Wolves were hoping to stumble to half-time only one down and regroup, City made sure that hope didn’t survive the interval. In stoppage time, Guardiola’s side sliced through the middle with a slick move that finally found the incision Wolves had been trying to deny. Semenyo received the ball, shifted it away from pressure and drilled a low finish into the corner. Two-nil, right on the brink of the whistle, and suddenly the contest had the feel of something decided.
Edwards reacted at half-time, making changes that immediately gave Wolves more balance and a clearer point of reference. The visitors were better after the restart, not just in effort but in organisation with the ball, keeping it longer, finding calmer touches in midfield, and forcing City to do a little more defending than they’d been asked to do in the first 45.
Joao Gomes went close with a direct free-kick as Wolves tried to plant a flag of resistance, and there were moments where Mateus Mane, lively and fearless, carried the ball with the kind of intent that makes defenders backpedal. One second-half free-kick from Mane found Mosquera, who attacked it aggressively and beat Gianluigi Donnarumma to the flight, only for the effort to be blocked. Mane later wriggled into the box and went down under pressure, but again there was no spot-kick forthcoming.
City still had chances to turn the scoreline into something more emphatic. Semenyo came close to a second when he cut inside and smashed a shot against the crossbar, the frame of the goal doing Wolves a favour as Sa turned to see where the rebound might fall. Marmoush remained a constant nuisance, buzzing between channels, offering short options and sharp runs, the sort of forward who makes a defence feel as if it’s being asked questions at speed.
Guardiola then rolled the dice in a different way, not by changing the system but by releasing the star names from the bench. Haaland, Phil Foden and Jeremy Doku were introduced as City looked to freshen the final third and close the afternoon out with possession rather than panic. The effect was less about fireworks and more about control, City ensuring Wolves couldn’t build sustained pressure without paying a price in transition.
Wolves did have one more moment that might have changed the mood inside the stadium. From a corner, Mosquera flicked a header onto the crossbar, the ball ricocheting away as City exhaled. It was the closest the visitors came to turning their improved second half into a goal, and it underlined the fine margins: Wolves were better after the break, but football doesn’t refund a poor first half just because you enjoyed the second.
By full-time, the numbers told a story of City dominance with a twist of Wolves grit. City had 64.3% possession and completed passes at 90.1% accuracy, but the shot count finished level at 11 apiece, a reflection of Wolves’ increased ambition after the break. City were more precise where it mattered, landing four shots on target to Wolves’ one, and taking the big moments in both boxes. The expected goals also leaned City’s way, 0.92 to 0.59, a game that felt controlled even if it wasn’t a siege from start to finish.
For City, this was less about spectacle and more about re-establishing habits. The early goal settled the nerves, the late first-half second punctured Wolves’ plan, and the clean sheet offered something reassuring after recent turbulence. Marmoush’s sharpness and Semenyo’s efficiency were the headline acts, while Guehi’s debut passed without drama, which for a centre-back is often the best compliment going.
For Wolves, the frustration will be how avoidable the uphill climb was. The second-half response suggested there is fight and structure in Edwards’ side, but at this level you can’t treat the opening 45 like a warm-up and expect to stroll back into the game later. City were too polished, too clinical, and, for the first time in a few weeks in the league, too much like themselves.
