Manchester City played on the precipice of disaster and are now in a race where Liverpool might just be uncatchable. Eight points adrift after eight games, the outlook is looking increasingly bleak.
Wolves were magnificent – fully deserving of Adama Traore’s two goals in the final 10 minutes – and City were dreadful, the heavyweight boxer repeatedly punching themselves in to the ropes.
Picked off at will and barely creating chances of their own, this was as bad as we have seen under Pep Guardiola. It is no exaggeration to say Wolves could have left the North West having inflicted far more damage.
City ended up with five bookings, something that underpins their sense of desperation. They failed to score a home goal for the first time in 45 Premier League matches. They gifted a dizzying number of genuine chances and were forced into hopeful crosses, long-range shots.
The champions have dropped as many points at home now as they did in the entirety of last year. This does not resemble the same team as the previous two seasons, with City having laboured to victory over Dinamo Zagreb a few days earlier.
Wolves, who had that 4,000 trip to Turkey in midweek, were far more energetic.
Three huge opportunities came and went before the break and Nicolas Otamendi’s fingerprints were smudged across them all.
The Argentine charged to win a ball he had no hope of doing on halfway, Adama Traore’s ball passing him by and leaving Fernandinho despairingly out of position. Patrick Cutrone, who only has one goal this season, panicked and skewed his effort well wide when through.
Otamendi was later indebted to his defensive partner, Fernandinho, for bailing him out. Wolves broke, Otamendi needlessly went to ground just outside his own penalty area, before Fernandinho blocked Raul Jimenez’s shot and then headed clear Cutrone’s follow-up.
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