WATCH FOR OUR PREVIEW AND PREDICTIONS AS WOLVES FACE MANCHESTER CITY
TEAM NEWS
Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Hwang Hee-chan will be absent following an ankle injury sustained while playing for South Korea. Enso Gonzalez, Sasa Kalajdzic, Yerson Mosquera, and Boubacar Traore also remain unavailable.
Manchester City will miss Kevin De Bruyne, and Nathan Ake’s participation is uncertain. Meanwhile, Rodri and Oscar Bobb are sidelined with long-term injuries.
GARY O'NEIL
Here are the key lines from his news conference:
Forward Hwang Hee-Chan will be out for “a couple to a few weeks” with an ankle injury sustained playing for South Korea. The rest of O’Neil’s squad is “the same as before the international break”.
On his side’s start to the season: “We sit here seven games in with one point. If you don’t look into the depths of how and why it looks like a disaster. But, if you do take the time to look into the situation and the fixtures you will easily see there is enough there to have a real clear view we can turn this around.”
He is confident results will improve soon: “I have 100% faith in myself and the playing group to show everyone we can compete at the level. Really confident and really comfortable I can help the group in this moment and turn things around.”
On beating City last season and the challenge on Sunday: “The key was discipline, counter-attacking and fight. It’s a tough game I’m looking forward to. We have to perform in a way to unite the fans.”
O’Neil added that from their meeting last season Wolves “miss Pedro Neto’s counter-attacking threat” after the winger joined Chelsea in the summer.
O’Neil believes his side must be better at controlling emotions: “The Brentford game was a shock. If we’re not at it, it’s not just the top teams that will beat you. It can’t happen. We conceded some goals that were almost unexplainable.”
MATCH STATS & FACTS
Head-to-head
Manchester City have won seven of the past eight league meetings, scoring a total of 25 goals in those games. Their only defeat during that period was by 2-1 at Molineux last season.
Wolves are aiming to win consecutive home league games against City for the first time since a run of three between 1982 and 1996.
City have dropped points in three of their six Premier League visits to Molineux.
Wolverhampton Wanderers
Wolves have failed to win any of their opening seven league games for the first time since the 2004-05 Championship season.
One point from seven matches is their joint-lowest tally at this stage of a season, along with 1926-27 and 1964-65.
They are looking to avoid six consecutive defeats in all competitions for the first time since February to March 2017 under Paul Lambert.
Wolves are aiming to avoid losing their opening four home games to a season for the first time.
Their only win in the past 17 league fixtures was 2-1 against Luton on 27 April.
Gary O’Neil’s side have conceded a league-high 21 goals this season.
They have not kept a clean sheet for 17 league matches since beating Sheffield United on 25 February.
The eight goals they have conceded from set-pieces this season is twice as many as any other top-flight club.
O’Neil could become the first English manager to record multiple Premier League wins against Pep Guardiola.
Manchester City
Manchester City could set a club record of 31 league games without defeat. Only on six occasions in English top-flight history has a side gone more than 30 matches without losing, most recently Liverpool’s run of 44 games from January 2019 to February 2020.
City have gone behind in four of their past six top-flight fixtures but they have recovered a league-high 10 points from losing positions this season.
They have avoided defeat in the last 11 league matches in which they’ve trailed (W9, D2), the joint-longest run in the Premier League history along with Arsenal in October 2004.
Pep Guardiola’s side have failed to keep a clean sheet in six league games since their 2-0 win at Chelsea on the opening weekend.
Their tally of 21 top-flight goals from outside the penalty area since the start of last season is nine more than any other side.
Erling Haaland has scored eight goals in just four league appearances against Wolves, averaging one every 40 minutes. Only one of those goals has come at Molineux.
None of City’s last five league goals has been scored by Haaland – he had previously netted eight successive goals for the reigning champions.
MATCH OFFICIALS
Referee: Chris Kavanagh. Assistants: Constantine Hatzidakis, Richard West. Fourth official: Tom Bramall. VAR: Stuart Attwell. Assistant VAR: Marc Perry.
MATCH INFO
match kicks off at 2pm on Sunday 20th October 2024. The Molineux fixture will be shown live on Sky Sports in the UK.