English Premier League: Wolves vs. Manchester City Betting Preview, Odds, Prediction

Wolves and Manchester City are closing the 2nd round of the English Premier League. The two sides have fought many interesting battles in the last couple of years, and this one should be no different. The home team lost one of its best players, Diogo Jota, and we’ll see how they handle that gap. Meanwhile, the Citizens start the new season desperate to win at least one major trophy, preferably the Champions League. This is, by the way, the first contest of the new campaign for them.

Preview

Wolves (+500) are now without their heart, Diogo Jota, who decided to jump to Liverpool, and join the reigning Premier League champions. On the other side, Nuno Espirito Santo brought an 18-year old Portuguese (which else) sensation, Fabio Silva, from FC Porto for more than $45 million. Judging by the headlines, he should be one of the best EPL midfielders anytime soon, and a propper replacement for Jota.

In the first game of the season, Wolverhampton beat Sheffield United on the road, 0-2, pretty routinely, showing that they aim to pick up where they left last season. After that, however, Espirito Santo’s boys received a nasty slap in the face, suffering elimination from the EFL at home, to Stoke, 0-1.

That was the ninth game in the recent ten, in which we saw under 2.5 goals, and also, the same in which both teams haven’t scored. 

Manchester City (-200) starts the season with the game at Molineux. Their previous match was against Lyon in the Champions League once they suffered an elimination and annihilation of their trophy dreams.

During the transfer window, the Citizens were quiet, landing just Nathan Ake and Ferran Torres from some notable names. David Silva and Leroy Sane left the club, so we might say that Guardiola enters the new season with pretty much the same team. 

We don’t need to speak too much about the philosophy of play City prefers. You all know that this side plays very appealing and attractive football, with lots of scores.

Latest News

Johny is the only one who won’t be playing for Wolverhampton.

Sergio Aguero and Aymeric Laporte are not ready for this contest. Ilkay Gundogan tested positive for COVID-19 and won’t participate in this event. 

Head to Head Games

The Citizens have a negative record against the Wolves, as they won 48 matches throughout history, losing one more. Twenty-five games ended without a winner in the end. 

As for the more recent events, Wolves haven’t lost in three straight games, including the EPL Asia tour. On both occasions, last season, Espirito Santo’s guys routed the champs at the time, 0-2 in Manchester and 3-2 at home.

Prediction

Without Jota, and with City recharged following the UCL campaign, it is our opinion that Wolves can’t escape a loss in this one. Odds on guests are not that high, but they should be safe, because we haven’t seen Guardiola dropping four straight chances to defeat a rival in his entire career. Not that we can remember. 

If it weren’t for Jota’s departure, there would be some doubts, but in this case, go with the guests’ triumph.