Key events
46 min: Almost a perfect start to the half for Wolves, as Doherty rolls a long pass down the right for Hoever, whose low cross finds Strand Larsen, ten yards out. Strand Larsen looks to guide a shot into the bottom right, but his effort whistles inches wide. Trafford might have had it covered; he might not.
Wolves get the second half started. No changes.
Half-time postbag. “Contrary to what you might see in the Canadian or Scandinavian tundra, Reijnders has absolutely terrorised Wolves” – Peter Oh
“These headlines write themselves: Reijnders guides the slay” – Chiwode
“I’m thinking back to famous Wolves-City clashes from the past, and those barrel-chested, fag-smoking greats Mike Bailey and Franny Lee. Barrel chests are sadly a thing of the past in these nutrition-specialist, controlled-diet days” – Jeremy Boyce
“Is it true that the pea in Jarred Gillett’s whistle is the only one in the Premier League to rotate in a clockwise direction?” – Justin Kavanagh
HALF TIME: Wolverhampton Wanderers 0-2 Manchester City
That’s why they’re champions a good shout to become champions for the seventh time in nine seasons.
45 min +4: Reijnders wins a corner down the right. Silva hits it long. Haaland flicks it on to Doku, whose bodyshape, mid-jump, is all wrong to either control or shoot from close range. Doku might have anticipated that flick-on better. That perhaps should have been 0-3.
45 min +2: Lewis attempts to shepherd a ball out for a goal kick, but he’s hassled from behind by Munetsi and is forced into conceding a corner. He claims to have been illegally skittled from behind, and he’s got a point, but the referee’s not buying it. The resulting corner nearly leads to a chance, too, as it’s hit long for Gomes, who can’t quite get a shot away on the right-hand edge of the six-yard box. His eventual dinked cross is plucked from the sky by Trafford.
45 min +1: Hoever curls a cross in from the right. Strand Larsen attempts to sweep home from the penalty spot, but he’s half-falling and gets the job all wrong. Trafford claims. The flag would have gone up for offside anyway.
45 min: Bad news for Wolves: there will be five additional first-half minutes.
44 min: Silva takes that corner. Dias wins a header. Haaland competes for another. The ball’s half-cleared. Doku performs a cute back-heel on the right touchline. This particular period of pressure eventually comes to nothing, but Wolves could do with hearing the half-time whistle. They were looking good for a brief moment or two, but now they’re chasing shadows.
43 min: … City win a corner out on the left, a result of Doku’s twisting and turning.
42 min: Munetsi is OK to continue. When play restarts, Reijnders, who is everywhere, wins a corner for City down the right. From which …
41 min: Another Wolves player takes an accidental whack to the head. This time it’s Munetsi, slapped by Stones as the pair contest a high ball. On come the physios again.
39 min: Well, that’s taken the air out of Molineux. Wolves were arguably looking the more likely to open the scoring ten minutes ago, but now look. What a double whammy.
GOAL! Wolverhampton Wanderers 0-2 Manchester City (Reijnders 37)
Agbadou gifts Bobb the ball in the centre circle with a loose pass. Bobb strides down the middle, draws the last man, and slips Reijnders free down the inside-left channel. Reijnders still has work to do, but from the edge of the box whistles a fierce daisycutter across Sa and into the bottom right! What a finish!
36 min: Haaland has now scored on the opening day of each of his four Premier League seasons. Just as Wolves were beginning to cause City a few headaches, as well.
GOAL! Wolverhampton Wanderers 0-1 Manchester City (Haaland 34)
It’s yet another opening-day goal for Haaland. Reijenders sashays down the inside-right channel, evading a couple of challenges in style, before wedging a pass into the box for Lewis, who swivels and sends a pass across Sa and into the six-yard box. Haaland can’t miss the tap-in.
32 min: Silva dribbles dangerously down the right but having reached the box, is unable to tee up either Haaland or Gonzalez in the middle. A good response from City to a few uncertain minutes.
30 min: Suddenly, City are all over the shop at the back. Bellegarde glides in from the left and threads a diagonal cross-cum-shot towards Munetsi, who is free on the right-hand edge of the six-yard box! He slams a shot straight at Trafford, and Strand Larsen, rooted to the spot, fails to react to the rebound. He’d have had a tap-in otherwise. But the flag goes up for another offside on Munetsi. Some work needing to be done on the training ground regarding this.
28 min: Doherty wrestles Doku to the ground, having been gracefully spun. He should be booked, but the referee makes do with a stern word. A bit later in the match, in the season, and that would surely be a yellow.
26 min: Doherty crosses from a deep position on the right. Munetsi absolutely plants a header into the left-hand side of the net, Trafford given no chance. But the striker had mistimed his run, and was a good mile offside. It’s disallowed. That came seconds after Strand Larsen met Hoever’s right-wing cross only for his shot to be blocked. Wolves are also having a lot of joy down their right side.
24 min: … and then another pass down the right flank, this time releasing Munetsi, whose cross is met by the in-rushing Gomes. Met, but not controlled, and the ball bounces through to Trafford. A better touch, and Gomes was bursting through the middle and shooting, one on one with the keeper. Wolves beginning to bare some teeth.
23 min: Agbadou sprays a long pass down the right and nearly releases Hoever, but Trafford races out of his box to head out for a throw.
21 min: Wolves move their press up a couple of notches, and get some joy with a series of 50-50s in the midfield. They come to nothing, but all of that is a demonstration of how City can be unsettled.
19 min: The number 18 clicks round on the stadium clock, and a huge ovation erupts in honour of Wolves’ former number 18, Diogo Jota. On the field, one great striker nearly honours another, as Silva crosses from the left, Haaland heading over an unguarded net – Sa was on walkabout – from six yards. To be fair to Haaland, the cross was too high and a little bit behind him.
18 min: Bobb jinks his way down the right, drawing three defenders before reaching the byline and pulling back to Lewis, who scuttles into the box on the underlap. Lewis wins a corner that’s cleared without too much drama. City are getting a fair bit of joy down this right side.
16 min: Silva is thankfully back up and about, and cleared to play on.
15 min: In going for that header, Gonzalez accidentally clattered into Andre, who took a whack on the side of the head. He goes down slowly, looking pretty groggy it has to be said. On comes the physio to gently assess the situation.
13 min: Stones crosses from the right again. It’s half cleared to Gonzalez, who heads back towards goal from the edge of the box. Sa does well to gather a ball threatening to sneak into the bottom-left corner.
11 min: Reijnders is already making his presence felt in the City midfield. A strong run down the middle nearly launches an attack out of nothing, challenges bouncing off him. He’s going to be some player for City.
9 min: Toti slips and nearly lets Haaland scoot clear down the middle. But as the defender falls, the ball hits his arm, stopping it getting through to the striker. It’s accidental, though, and it’s injury added to insult for City as Reijnders and Silva launch a pincer-move on Joao Gomes, and are about to tear clear themselves when the referee pulls them up for a soft foul. Wolves get away with not one, but two.
7 min: Stones crosses from a deep position on the right. He floats a diagonal towards Doku, whose run has sprung him clear of the City back line. He’s free in the box, albeit facing a tight angle; however he can’t control the dropping ball and it’s a goal kick.
6 min: Dias plays a careless pass out from the back which is snapped up by Andre. The ball’s shifted left to Bellegarde, who looks for Strand Larsen in the middle with a low cross. Dias makes up for his mistake by sliding in front of the Wolves striker to block and hook clear. Better from Wolves, which wasn’t a high bar: they’d previously hardly had a touch.
4 min: City have settled quickly. They’re already dominating possession. Bobb slips Reijnders into space on the right but the £34m signing from Milan runs the ball out for a goal kick.
2 min: Doku scampers down the left and crosses deep. Haaland is lurking, so Moller Wolfe is taking no chances, and heads behind for the first corner of the match. Silva swings it in, but it’s cleared easily enough.
City get the ball rolling. It’s passed back immediately to Trafford, who gets his first touch in a competitive fixture for his new club by blootering upfield. Agbadou heads it back the other way.
The teams are out. Wolves in their old gold, City their sky blue. Sting’s Fields of Gold, favourite of Diogo Jota, plays over the PA system. Very many emotional faces in the stands. A tifo is unveiled: “We’ll remember you when you walk in Fields of Gold.” The players congregate around the centre circle for a moment of thunderous applause in his memory. The crowd also chant his name. The Portuguese flag flutters high over Molineux. Then the referee’s whistle, signalling the match about to be played.
Pep Guardiola speaks to Sky. “We always try to anticipate what is going to happen … I don’t know … the team is training good since the Club World Cup … they came back from their short holidays good … training sessions are good … now they try to win games … it’s the first game of the season … this is my tenth season … we will try to be as consistent as possible … the key months will be November, December, January and February.”
He also reports that Ederson is ill with a stomach bug – so put that Galatasaray chat on hold – and that Rodri will be available again “very soon”.
Wolves boss Vítor Pereira talks to Sky Sports. “We have to compete from the first game … this is a tough competition … we need to start to get points from the beginning … today is not a time to complain about what is missing [re the departures of Rayan Aït-Nouri and Matheus Cunha] … it is time to think about ourselves, our players, we have a very good group … we compete for sure … I want to see bravery … tactical organisation … true spirit … good energy for the supporters … my focus is not in the players that leave but the players I have in this moment.”
The cover of today’s matchday programme is a study of Diogo Jota in the Old Gold of Wolves and the red and green of Portugal. His brother André Silva is draped in Portuguese finery on the back.
Supporters meanwhile congregate outside Molineux next to a mural depicting Jota. Glasses are raised to their old number 18; sweet memories of the 2017-18 Championship win, and the reflected glory of Jota’s 2024-25 Nations League triumph.
Wolverhampton Wanderers had a debut to Norway left wing-back David Møller Wolfe. Their other new signings – Colombia striker Jhon Arias and young Spanish midfielder Fer López – are both named as subs.
Manchester City give a debut to James Trafford, with Ederson omitted entirely. Ederson is rumoured to be leaving, possibly in a £10m deal with Galatasaray. Rayan Ait-Nouri, formerly of Wolves, and Tijjani Reijnders make their Premier League debuts for City, having already turned out for their new employers at the Club World Cup.
The teams
Wolverhampton Wanderers: Jose Sa, Doherty, Agbadou, Toti Gomes, Hoever, Joao Gomes, Andre Trindade, Wolfe, Bellegarde, Larsen, Munetsi.
Subs: Johnstone, Hugo Bueno, Santiago Bueno, Arias, Hwang, Mosquera, Kalajdzic, Rodrigo Gomes, Lopez.
Manchester City: Trafford, Lewis, Stones, Dias, Ait Nouri, Gonzalez, Reijnders, Bobb, Silva, Doku, Haaland.
Subs: Ortega, Ake, Marmoush, Cherki, Gundogan, Akanji, Matheus Luiz, O’Reilly, Khusanov.
Referee: Jarred Gillett (Australia).
Preamble
Wolverhampton Wanderers start their season under a cloud. Diogo Jota was a Liverpool player when he passed, but he was beloved of Wolves too, having won promotion with the Old Gold before helping them re-establish themselves as a top-flight presence. He scored 44 goals in 131 appearances for the Molineux club, an extremely popular figure. Wreaths will be laid, a tifo unveiled, and Jota’s favourite song, the unquestionably appropriate Fields Of Gold by Sting, will be performed. Then a game of football will take place. Kick-off will be at 5.30pm UK time.