By Opta Analyst | Created at 2024-10-29 21:22:16 | Updated at 2024-11-05 21:21:10
6 days ago
Manchester City are heavily backed by the Opta supercomputer to win in the Premier League on Sunday, but could their hosts spring a surprise? Look ahead to the game at Molineux with our Wolves vs Man City prediction and preview.
Wolves vs Man City Stats: The Key Insights
- The Opta supercomputer rates visitors Manchester City as overwhelming favourites for this clash, winning 68.8% of match simulations.
- Wolves have failed to win any of their opening seven games of a league season for the first time since 2004-05.
- City are unbeaten in 30 Premier League games, their joint-longest run in the competition.
Wolves could scarcely have hand-picked a worse opponent than champions Manchester City as they aim to earn a first Premier League win of the campaign after the October international break.
Gary O’Neil’s strugglers have taken just a solitary point through seven top-flight matches to sit bottom of the pile; next, they welcome the might of Pep Guardiola’s side to Molineux on Sunday.
It is the first time since 2004-05, when they were in the Championship, that Wolves have failed to win any of their opening seven games of the season. Furthermore, on only three occasions have they had a longer winless streak to open a campaign – the worst of those coming in 1983-84 (14).
There have been no home comforts so far either, and defeat here would mark the first time in their history that they have lost their opening four home matches of a season.
Matheus Cunha has been a particularly luckless figure, losing each of the past four league games he has scored in, with only Heidar Helguson (January to April 2000) and Mohamed Diamé (April 2011 to October 2012) having a stretch of five in the competition.
What is particularly worrisome for the hosts is the fact City have gone 30 Premier League games unbeaten (W24 D6), equalling their best run achieved from April 2017 to January 2018. There have been just six longer sequences in English top-flight history, with Liverpool the most recent to better it with 44 games without defeat between January 2019 and February 2020.
City also have a pretty healthy habit of fighting back in games, falling behind in four of their past six but recovering a league-high 10 points from losing positions this season. Impressively, they have won nine and drawn two of the last 11 league games they have trailed in.
One particular – albeit unsurprising – thorn in Wolves’ side in recent history has been Erling Haaland.
The Norwegian has eight goals in just four Premier League appearances versus Wolves, averaging one every 40 minutes. One small hint of comfort for Wolves is that only one of those has come at Molineux, however.
Wolves have an injury concern over Hwang Hee-chan, who sustained an ankle knock playing for South Korea against Jordan over the international break. Yerson Mosquera, Sasa Kalajdzic and Enso González are long-term absentees, but there is a chance teenager Bastien Meupiyou – signed from Nantes in the summer – could be available for the first time.
For City, De Bruyne is still absent after injuring his pelvis against Inter on September 18, although he wasn’t seen in training on Thursday. Nathan Aké – who was injured during last month’s international break for the Netherlands – also isn’t ready yet despite recently returning to training. Rodri and Oscar Bobb are both out for the long term.
Wolves vs Man City Head-to-Head
It does not make particularly good reading if you are a Wolves fan in truth, although there is a crumb of comfort in the fact they won this exact same fixture last season 2-1.
However, they have failed to win consecutive home games against City since winning three between 1982 and 1996.
Moreover, City have triumphed in seven of the previous eight top-flight contests between the sides (last season’s reverse at Molineux the sole exception) and have scored 25 goals across those matches.
Wolves vs Man City Prediction
Man City are rated as clear favourites with the Opta supercomputer for this one, coming out on top in 68.8% of the 10,000 simulations conducted.
In contrast, Wolves emerged victorious just 13.3% of the time, while the draw occurred on 17.9% of occasions, really emphasising the size of the task O’Neil’s men face.
Indeed, when looking at the predictions for the season overall, City may sit second in the actual table but still hold a 69.6% chance of winning the title, with Arsenal (19.7%) and Liverpool (10.6%) their nearest rivals in that regard.
The situation looks troubling for Wolves, who have a 21.8% chance of finishing 19th, while there is a 16.2% probability of coming in 17th. Indeed, there is only a 0.5% likelihood now they make the top 10.
Wolves vs Man City Predicted Lineups
Opta Power Rankings
The Opta Power Rankings are a global team ranking system that assigns an ability score to over 13,000 domestic football teams on a scale between zero and 100, where zero is the worst-ranked team in the world and 100 is the best team in the world.
Ahead of kick-off this weekend, here is the Opta Power Ranking for both sides.
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