It was a perfect opening to the season for Manchester City, as they comprehensively defeated Wolves 4-0 at Molineux including goals from debutants Tijjani Reijnders and Rayan Cherki, as well as a brace from Erling Haaland.
Line-ups
Manchester City
Manchester City’s line-up saw a number of players miss out on the squad, including Gvardiol and Kovačić, confirmed as injured by Guardiola during his press conference yesterday, as well as Savinho and Ederson, both rumoured to be leaving the club soon, although City claim the former is injured and the latter is ill. The final absences are Rodri and Foden, who travelled but are not fit enough to make the bench, and Echeverri, who will be expected to leave the club on loan before the end of the month. Debuts for Trafford, Reijnders and Aït-Nouri (against his former team) as well as the return of Oscar Bobb round up the major talking points of the line-up.
Your first City XI of the @premierleague season! 🩵
— Manchester City (@ManCity) August 16, 2025
XI | Trafford, Lewis, Stones, Dias, Ait-Nouri, Nico, Bernardo (C), Bobb, Reijnders, Doku, Haaland
SUBS | Ortega Moreno, Ake, Marmoush, Cherki, Gundogan, Akanji, Nunes, O'Reilly, Khusanov
🤝 @etihad pic.twitter.com/41S3onk7QM
Wolves
Wolves line-up to start the season under Vitor Pereira for the first time, following his arrival last season to guide them to safety. The Portuguese manager’s first opening day line-up misses out on two of their star players from last season, following Matheus Cunha and Rayan Aït-Nouri’s moves the Manchester, the latter to their opponents. Despite that, the return of Jørgen Strand Larsen, signed permanently from Celta Vigo following his loan spell in the Black Country last season. The return of Ki-Jana Hoever, who spent last season on loan at Auxerre in Ligue 1 and the debut of David Møller Wolfe are other notable headlines in their first starting XI of the Premier League season.
Our first line-up of the new @premierleague season.
— Wolves (@Wolves) August 16, 2025
🐺📋 pic.twitter.com/Nx7gJAVQ3e
Pre-match
Before the kick-off, both teams participated in an applause honouring former Wolves player Diogo Jota, who tragically passed away during the summer. Jota joined Wolves in 2017 and was part of their Championship-winning team. He spent two years with the club in the Premier League before signing for Liverpool.
First Half
City opened the game with a spell of decent pressure, seeking to cross the ball into the box. Not much came of this, however, aside from a couple of difficult headers that Haaland couldn’t direct towards the goal. Wolves grew into the game, looking to play the ball in behind City’s high line. But repeatedly they were caught offside by City’s disciplined defence, including when Marshall Munetsi put the ball past James Trafford. From this disallowed goal City sparked to life, as debutant Tijjani Reijnders played a beautiful chipped pass over the Wolves defense right into the path of Rico Lewis, who played the ball across to Haaland for a tap-in. Just 3 minutes later, City counter-attacked from a sloppy pass by Wolves near the centre circle and Oscar Bobb played in Reijnders, who finished brilliantly from the edge of the box to double City’s advantage. That was the scoreline as the half came to a conclusion, following 5 minutes of added time for a number of Wolves injuries.
Four seasons in the Premier League, and four times he has scored in the first match 🤖
— Premier League (@premierleague) August 16, 2025
Erling Haaland is inevitable. pic.twitter.com/o57hKJPoRn
Second Half
Wolves sought to break back into the game immediately, with Strand Larsen narrowly putting a shot wide of the post in the first minute of the second half. The spell of pressure continued for the first 15 minutes, until Manchester City counter-attacked again. A long ball went to Reijnders, who controlled brilliantly and drove forward. He played a 1-2 with Oscar Bobb, before pulling the ball back to Haaland who finished clinically for his second of the game. This assist made Reijnders only the second player to both score and assist on debut for the club, alongside club record goalscorer Sergio Agüero. Following this goal, Guardiola made a number of substitutions, bringing on O’Reilly, Marmoush and Nunes for Silva, Lewis and Doku. Wolves also made subs bringing on debutants Fer Lopéz and Jhon Arias, as well as Hugo Bueno and Rodrigo Gomes. At the same time, Haaland was substituted off for City debutant Rayan Cherki. Wolves pressured following the changes, it was Cherki who would make the difference, playing a neat flick which lead to a scuffle before finishing low past the keeper from outside the area. Two more changes as Khusanov came on for Stones and Hwang replaced Strand Larsen, and the game came to a close without much further incident.
Man of the match
Tijjani Reijnders was the difference maker, being at the heart of everything City did today. His quality was immense and he is deservedly the man of the match. If I were to mention any other players, Bernardo Silva was immense before coming off, popping up everywhere during City’s press, and Erling Haaland returned to normal service with an opening day brace.
Final thoughts
Manchester City will be delighted with both the result and the performance, especially with the contribution of their new signings, as Reijnders won man of the match, Cherki had a brilliant cameo and Aït-Nouri was both useful going forward and solid in defence. The result sees City provisionally top of the table, which does not mean much when a number of teams have yet to even play, but will nonetheless be a nice takeaway for a club looking to reclaim their crown this season. For Wolves, they will be particularly disappointed with their inability to make their spells of pressure count. But ultimately, this is not a game that will define their season, and their fans will get a better sense of where they are next week when they travel to face Bournemouth.
