Wolves VS Manchester City: Manchester City rarely loses in the first round of the league, but it may be difficult to win big

2025-2026 season, the first round of the Premier League

2025.08.17 00:30, Wolves vs Manchester City

Review of the history of confrontation

For Wolves, their best memories of facing Manchester City remained in the 19/20 season, when they defeated Manchester City at home and away, they won a winning streak against the Blue Moon.

But in 10 league games since 2020, Wolves fell at a disadvantage in 1 win and 9 losses - the winning game was still at home in the 23/24 season, but in the other 9 games, they either lost 1 goal and lost unfortunately (4 times, 0-1 and 1-2 twice each), or lost at least 3 goals directly (5 times, with the maximum score difference of 1-5).

But this situation undoubtedly brought "slight trouble" to the pre-match prediction - although Manchester City must be regarded as a high-probability winner, it is difficult to determine whether this is a big win or a narrow victory.

Opta's prediction for this game actually supports the direction of clear support - Wolves won, 16.6%; Manchester City won, 62.2%; both sides tied, 21.2%.

As for whether the two sides may have a draw, the probability is actually very low - since Wolves returned to the Premier League in the 18/19 season, they only scored a 1-1 draw with Manchester City in their first game after their return, and in the 13 league games since then, they can decide the outcome.

Let's look at the results of both sides in the first round of the league:

Since returning to the Premier League in 18/19, Wolves have spent the first two years of fantasy, 18/19&19/20, both ranked 7th in the first round of the league, and both were tied. However, since winning the first round of the 20/21 season, they have failed to win the first round of the game for four consecutive years from 22-25. Although this may be because their first rounds were played away in the past four seasons, the result of the defeat cannot be changed.

Manchester City and Wolves are more similar to that of Wolves. They have also started their new season away for many years - Manchester City this season will be the ninth consecutive season with a away game, but the situation is not as bad as Wolves. At least in the first league game in the past 14 years, they won 13 of them, only losing to Tottenham in 21;

Manchester City has another good news that they performed well in the initial stage of the league - losing to Tottenham in August 21 was the only loss in the last 31 league games in August. At the same time, in their last 8 games, they still have a huge goal difference advantage of 25:5.

So, if the Wolves want to be upset in this game, it feels difficult to do it - after all, in the last five home games against Manchester City, the team only has 1 win and 4 losses, and in the game that lost, the goal difference was also 3:13 far behind the opponent!

Recent situation analysis

Wolves

Wolves scored a total of 54 goals last season, and Cunya, who has transferred to Manchester United, scored 15 goals and 6 assists, with a total of 21 goals producing accounts for 38.88% of the team's total goals.

The top priority is undoubtedly: although Wolves have invested nearly 70 million from Celta and Fruminense to introduce three forwards, no one can guarantee whether the effect will be immediate.

The Wolves, which have been ranked 13th and behind for three consecutive years, must be the pragmatic goal of this season to establish relegation as soon as possible and strive for a mid-level ranking. In such a situation, they will face strong opponents at home and will have to win a draw by shrinking their defense.

However, the uncertainty of the ending ability and the historical data that Manchester City has never scored against Wolves without goals, undoubtedly make Wolves' first round failure in this game seem inevitable for five consecutive years.

Manchester City

As the assist king of Ligue 1 last season, Serky's arrival will undoubtedly become Manchester City's new offensive initiator and commander. Considering that there are still two strikers, Haaland and Marmush, in Manchester City, the team's basic offensive efficiency will not be too poor.

But Manchester City's cliché problem is still speed and speed - if the conventional transmission cannot find the opponent's gap, then the tactics used last season to hit the opponent's long passes will undoubtedly switch faster to establish a leading advantage; and in the case where Rodri will not play, the Blue Moon's other speed will undoubtedly focus on the counter-grabbing level. If the team can immediately curb the opponent's advancement after conceding the ball, creating a half-court counterattack for itself, which will not only greatly reduce the pressure on the defense, but also provide more opportunities for the offensive end.

Overall, what the outside world hopes to see in the first game is the increase in the vitality of new players such as Sherki and Reindes in the official game for Manchester City at the midfield and frontcourt level. After all, Manchester City, which is slow, has already lost its previous threat in the Premier League.