Man City 2-0 Wolves: Josep Guardiola’s side regained their form against the Etihad with goals from Omar Marmouche and January signing Antoine Semenho, securing victory against Wolves.
City beat Wolves 2-0 (Image: Getty Images)
No Erling Haaland. no problem. Unless the wolf is a visitor.
Josep Guardiola opted to tone down his scoring ability to give Haaland some much-needed breathing room. This may have been a courageous move, given the fact that City are struggling to chase down favorites Arsenal.
But on an afternoon when Guardiola’s men didn’t have to break a sweat, Wolves helped ensure Haaland was not overlooked by City. Goals from Omar Marmouche and Antoine Semenyo were more than enough for City to claim their first league win of 2026.
It was the perfect debut for £30m new signing Marc Gehi. Marmouche made the most of his first league start since August by scoring the opener within six minutes.
before Semenyo doubled City’s lead at the end of half-time. Guardiola made a number of changes to the team, which suffered a major meltdown in the Arctic Circle.
read more: Premier League explains why Man City were not awarded a penalty despite Wolves’ handballread more: Erling Haaland and Phil Foden leave Man City team to join Wolves, Pep Guardiola explains
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Most notably, Guehi, who joined from Crystal Palace, was given his debut and Haaland was placed on the bench. Coach Guardiola needed Guehi’s calming influence on the defense, which had conceded five goals in consecutive losses.
Dropping any more points simply wasn’t an option if City wanted to maintain a realistic chance of beating Arsenal and winning the title. Not, of course, against the visitors, who arrived in Manchester at the bottom of the league table.
Wolves are unbeaten in their last five games in all competitions and could be enjoying a bit of a comeback. But there can be no excuse for City’s failure to eliminate them.
And it took less than six minutes for the hosts to take the lead. He gave Matheus Nunez too much time and space on the right to cross, but Marmouche connected with it and beat Jose Sa with a clinical finish.
Omar Marmouche replaces Erling Haaland against Wolves (Image: Getty Images)
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City could have doubled their lead with a goal from Antoine Semenyo, but Sa was denied. The wolf struggled to get out of his own half, staring down the barrel of paste.
The quick action ended with Ryan Cherke knocking a shot inches wide of Sa’s right post. After seeing Plan A fail within minutes, Rob Edwards seemed incapable of creating a Plan B.
And the situation didn’t help when Wolves managed to pull off a meaningful attack, only for Matheus Mane to hit a desperate shot into the stands. City should have scored again when Cherki charged into the Wolves defence, but they were unable to pick out Marmouche and the Egyptian looked to score his second goal.
Wolves continued to ride their luck as Abdukkodir Kusanov picked out Marmouche with a nice diagonal ball. But when the forward cut inside and beat Sa, his shot rebounded off the post. The good luck continued when VAR checked for a handball in the build-up to Marmouche’s Elson Mosquera shot.
Antoine Semenyo’s dream start to life in the City continues (Image: Getty Images)
Referee Farai Haram, making his Premier League debut, was instructed to check the pitchside monitor and stuck to his original decision when he refused to point to the spot. Somehow Wolves were still in the game and Guardiola was furious.
But that all changed just before half-time when Semenho ran into the path of Bernardo Silva and beat Sa with a sharp finish into the bottom corner.
Haaland came on as a substitute with less than 20 minutes remaining. By that time the match had been won, but he was still not needed.
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