Wolverhampton Wanderers v Manchester City - The Opposition

It’s hard not to get carried away with the hype of City about to sign Erling Haaland, but they still have a Premier League title to win, and that continues on Wednesday evening as they visit Wolves.

City can take another step closer to the title with a win in the Black Country, and, with the blues unable to rely on other clubs’ results to help them out, need to keep the pressure on at the top of the table.

Wolves still have a place in next season’s Conference League to play for and, if results go their way, could even make it to the Europa League. To do that, they’d have to win all their final games and hope West Ham drop points and need United to lose at Palace. But first, they will need three points against the title-chasing blues.

Form

Wolves scored in the seventh minute of injury time at Stamford Bridge on Saturday to claim a point against Chelsea, coming back from 2-0 down. The draw ended a run of three successive defeats, having lost at Newcastle and Burnley (both 1-0), before taking a 3-0 beating at home to Brighton.

Wolves have had a mixed bag of results at home, winning seven and losing eight, which includes a recent 3-2 loss to struggling Leeds United. Three of their home defeats came in the first three games of the season as Spurs, United and Brentford all walked away from Molineux with three points.

They have also been defeated by Liverpool, Arsenal and Crystal Palace at home this season, and the blues will be hoping Wolves poor home form, together with City’s excellent away form, will see Haaland’s new club walk away with three points.

Goals

From seventeen games, Wolves have scored just eighteen goals and conceded nineteen, giving them a goal difference of -1. They have kept just four clean sheets at home all season, and have failed to score on nine occasions at home this season.

Danger Men

Raul Jimenez is once again the main threat from Wolves. Along with Daniel Podence, Jimenez has scored six goals so far this season, but from the two, has the lower goal conversion rate (14%) and lower shot accuracy (37%). Podence, by comparison, has a goal conversion rate of 19% and a much higher shot accuracy of 69%.

Hwang Hee-Chan has five goals and a far superior goal conversion rate with 33% and slightly lower shot accuracy with 67%.

Assists have been led by Jimenez and Rayan Aït-Nouri with four each. The latter has a better pass accuracy rating of 77%, compared to Jimenez’ 71%. Leander Dendoncker is the one to watch though. From thirty-two matches, Dendoncker has attempted 966 passes, completed 853 and has a pas accuracy of 88%, the highest in the Wolves team.

He has however, only created ten chances, yet three of those have been converted. The honour of most chances created falls to Joao Moutinho who, with 1,988 attempted passes (the most in the side) and 1,732 completed, has created forty-six chances in total. The good news is that, for all his hard workF, only one chance was converted.

Who’s the Boss?

Bruno Lage is the man at the helm at Molineux. The former Benfica boss took charge in June 2021 after Nuno Espirito Santo left to join Spurs. Lage has overseen thirty-nine matches, winning seventeen and losing sixteen, giving him a win ration of 44%.

Last Time Out

The blues edged out Wolves at the Etihad Stadium thanks to a controversial 66^th minute penalty by Raheem Sterling. But, Jimenez took centre stage, as he received two yellow cards within seconds of each other and had to sit out the entire second half.