We face Julen Lopetegui’s team at the Etihad Stadium today, kick-off 14:00 (UK time).
In comes Aymeric Laporte and Kevin De Bruyne in place of Nathan Ake and Julian Alvarez, who both drop to the bench.
Phil Foden misses today’s encounter as he’s not fully fit.
TEAMS
CITY XI: Ederson, Lewis, Stones, Akanji, Laporte, Rodrigo, De Bruyne, Gundogan, Mahrez, Grealish, Haaland
Subs: Ortega Moreno, Walker, Dias, Phillips, Ake, Cancelo, Alvarez, Bernardo, Palmer
WOLVES XI: Sa, Semedo, Collins, Kilman, Bueno, Lemina, Neves, Nunes, A. Traore, Jimenez, Hwang
Subs: Sarkic, Ait-Nouri, Toti, Jonny, Moutinho, Podence, Sarabia, Cunha, Costa
TACTICS
Pep Guardiola has opted for his trusted 4-3-3 for the visit of Wolves.
Ederson is between the sticks and protected by a back four of Rico Lewis, Manuel Akanji, John Stones and Aymeric Laporte.
Rodrigo is the anchor man in the midfield, with Ilkay Gundogan and Kevin De Bruyne getting forward on either side of him.
Jack Grealish will look to do damage on the left wing and Riyad Mahrez attacking on the right in support of central forward Erling Haaland.
RELIABLE RICO
The stock of Rico Lewis is rising all the time.
He’s now seen as an absolute integral part of Pep Guardiola’s City squad after bursting on to the scene via our academy.
The boss, speaking following the 4-2 win over Tottenham, lauded the full-back for his performances of late, which have really caught the eye.
Guardiola stressed that “he deserves to play every game” – and he’s selected him in the XI again today after starting against Spurs on Thursday.
He said: “Rico, 18 years old, was amazing in the Carabao Cup. The games he played against Liverpool and Chelsea and against Leeds, the most aggressive team in the Premier League.
“At Chelsea at Stamford Bridge after one minute, he changed the game. He changed the game. Today (Tottenham). He deserves to play every single game, I’m sorry. He deserve it.”
The manager will be looking for another performance that demonstrates maturity beyond his years.
MORE FROM MAHREZ
Riyad Mahrez is undoubtedly the man of the moment.
With City losing 2-0 at the break against Tottenham, Mahrez was the catalyst for a second half comeback that saw us win 4-2 come full-time.
Mahrez scored two and assisted two in a 45-minute display of real class.
But it’s not just that.
He scored four goals before the winter World Cup across 16 games but has scored six goals in seven games since the resumption of competitive action, including five goals in the last four games.
Mahrez is in a rich vein of form and let’s look for that to continue this afternoon.
KDB RETURNS
Kevin De Bruyne is back in the City starting line-up for today’s game against Wolves.
Not only is that a good thing due to his leadership, quality and flair, he also has a good record against the men from Molineux.
He has been directly involved in nine goals in his last six Premier League appearances against Wolves, scoring five and assisting four.
Indeed, taking those stats even further, he’s actually been directly involved in six goals in his last two top-flight appearances against them – he scored four goals in May 2022 and got two assists in September 2022.
Let’s hope he bears his teeth against Wolves today.
MATCH STATS
City have won our last five in a row against Wolves, scoring 16 goals and conceding just three.
Wolves have picked up just four points in eight Premier League visits to City (W1 D1 L6), with their one win here coming in October 2019.
Since their return to the Premier League in 2018, Wolves have received more red cards against City than they have against any other opponent in the competition (3), accounting for 33% of their total reds in that time (3/9).
Pep Guardiola has won two of his three meetings with Wolves’ Julen Lopetegui in all competitions (L1), with his Bayern Munich side beating Porto 6-1 in April 2015 and City beating Sevilla 4-0 in this season’s UEFA Champions League.
City have lost just two of our last 24 home games in the Premier League, picking up 20 wins in the process. Indeed, we’ve found the back of the net in each of these 24 matches, scoring 81 goals in total.
City have won eight of our last nine home matches in the Premier League played on Sunday (D1), scoring 36 goals across these matches.
Last time out, Erling Haaland scored his 22nd Premier League goal of the season – the most by a City player in a single league season under Pep Guardiola.
City have only failed to score in two of our 17 Premier League meetings with Wolves, losing 1-0 in October 2003 and 2-0 in October 2019.
This is Wolves’ 50th away top-flight league game against City. After winning five in a row against us between 1956 and 1960, they have only won three of their last 24 league visits in the top-flight (D7 L14).
This is the first meeting between Pep Guardiola and Julen Lopetegui in a league game. They have faced three times before in the Champions League, two wins for Guardiola (Bayern Munich 6-1 Porto in 2015, Sevilla 0-4 Man City in 2022) and one win for Lopetegui (Porto 3-1 Bayern Munich in 2015).
CITY V WOLVES
With today’s game not available for UK viewers to watch live this afternoon, the best place to follow the match - if you’re not attending in person - is via our official app.
The game has not been selected for coverage by Sky Sports, BT Sport or Amazon Prime but, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered with comprehensive coverage throughout today.
Our Matchday Centre, beginning at 12:00, provides text updates, stats and reaction before, during and after the match with blow-by-blow analysis of the match as it happens.
Just before 13:00, our Matchday Live show features Shaun Goater and Paul Dickov in the studio as they give you their pre-match thoughts, half-time analysis and full-time verdict.
During the game itself, Alistair Mann and Andy Morrison will guide you through the action with live commentary from 14:00.
After the game, we will have a gallery of the best images from the game, full reaction from the manager and a player - both in written and video format - as well as short and extended highlights.
Our short highlights will be available from 17:45 while the extended version will go live at midnight – both UK time.
Subscribers to CITY+ and Recast can also enjoy a full-match replay of the whole 90 minutes from midnight.
