Wolves have lost nine of their last 10 Premier League meetings with Manchester City (W1), although their one victory in this period did come at Molineux early in the season, winning 2-1 in September 2023 under Gary O’Neil.
Across the last five Premier League campaigns, Manchester City have won the joint-most games (4) and scored the most goals (14) of any side when facing Wolves at Molineux (W4 D0 L1 F14 A5).
This will be the ninth consecutive Premier League campaign that Manchester City have started with an away game, while they’ve won seven of the previous eight (L1), scoring 19 goals and only conceding twice across those matches.
Man City have won their opening league game in 13 of the last 14 seasons, with the exception being a 1-0 loss at Tottenham Hotspur in 2021-22.
Having been unbeaten in their opening league match in eight consecutive campaigns between 2013-14 and 2020-21 (W4 D4), Wolves have lost on MD1 in each of the last four seasons.
After a six-game winning run in March and April, Wolves failed to win any of their final four Premier League games of 2024-25 (D1 L3).
Manchester City have lost just one of their last 31 Premier League games in August (W26 D4), going down 1-0 at Spurs in their opening game of the 2021-22 season. They’ve won their last eight August games by an aggregate score of 25-5.
Wolves’ Vítor Pereira has won eight of his 10 MD1 matches in his top-flight managerial career across spells with six different clubs (D1 L1), although his only such opening day defeat came last season, his Al-Shabab side going down 0-1 to Steven Gerrard’s Al-Ettifaq in the Saudi Pro League.
New Man City signing Rayan Aït-Nouri made 135 league appearances for Wolves between 2020 and 2025. He could be the fourth player to make his Premier League debut for Man City against a side he previously played for in the competition, after Danny Granville (v Leeds in 2000), Tommy Wright (v Newcastle in 2000) and Craig Bellamy (v Newcastle in 2009).
No player provided more assists in France’s Ligue 1 last season than new Man City signing Rayan Cherki (11). The Frenchman was also involved in 13 goals in his last 15 league appearances for Lyon (5 goals, 8 assists).
Sunderland
