Manchester City - Wolves predictions and free betting tips [04/05/2024]

On Saturday, 4th May, in the 36th round of the Premier League, Manchester City will host Wolverhampton on their home turf. The "Citizens" are trailing the league-leading Arsenal by just one point with one match in hand, while the "Wolves" are no longer contending for anything significant in the remaining part of the season. 

Predicted Line-ups

Manchester City: Ortega; Walker, Stones, Dias, Guardiola; Rodri; Bernardo, De Bruyne, Foden, Grealish; Haaland. 
Wolverhampton: Sa; Semedo, Kilman, Toti; Doherty, Lemina, Gomes, Traore, Ait-Nouri; Kün, Hwang.           

Manchester City

Manchester City intend to reclaim their championship title this season: currently, the "Citizens" are in second place in the Premier League table, but trail Arsenal by just one point, with one game in hand. Thus, the ball is in Pep Guardiola's court at the final stage of the campaign. Furthermore, the hosts have not tasted defeat in the national premiership since early December (15 victories and 4 draws). The Mancunians predictably gathered an extraordinary pace in spring, triumphing over Aston Villa (4:1), Crystal Palace (2:4), Luton (5:1), Brighton (0:4) and Nottingham Forest last weekend (0:2). Midway through the first half, Josko Guardiol opened the scoring for the "Citizens", and Erling Haaland marked his return to the field after injury with a precise strike in the second half less than 10 minutes after coming off the bench.

In the FA Cup, Manchester City recently dispatched Chelsea in the semi-finals and will soon face Manchester United in the decisive round. The coaching staff of the club will be unable to count on Ruben Dias and Foden (16 goals and 7 assists), who missed the match against Forest due to illness. Moreover, main goalkeeper Ederson is also struggling with health issues. Erling Haaland (21 goals and 5 assists) is certainly set to return to the starting line-up and will occupy the centre-forward position, whereas in midfield we can expect the presence of Rodri (7 goals and 7 assists), De Bruyne (4 goals and 8 assists), and Bernardo Silva (6 goals and 5 assists). Julian Alvarez and Jeremy Doku may bolster the game by stepping in from the bench.

Wolverhampton

Wolverhampton have comfortably situated themselves in the lower half of the league table, sitting at the 11th position, and do not have any substantial objectives for the final three rounds of the season. The lack of motivation has been acutely felt lately: following the international break in March, Garry O'Neil's men have gone six matches without a win (two draws and four losses). Last weekend, the Oranges finally managed to pull themselves together: with the support of their fans, Wolverhampton saw off Luton (2:1). Hwang Hee-chan broke the deadlock, scoring his first league goal since December, and Toti Gomes doubled the Wolves' advantage five minutes after the break. It's worth noting that the Wolves have failed to secure a victory in any of their last four away games and will most likely close out the campaign with arguably the toughest Premier League duels – against Man City and Liverpool.

Moreover, the visitors have lost 18 of their last 20 away Premier League matches against teams that are currently in the top two. Wolverhampton will be without key winger Pedro Neto (2 goals and 9 assists), defender Dawson, forward Chivome, winger Noha Lemina and defender Bueno – all injured. Lastly, midfielder Bellegarde is also recovering his fitness in the infirmary. The team's attacking duo might once again consist of Matheus Kün (11 goals and 7 assists) and Hwang Hee-chan (11 goals and 3 assists), while on-loan City player Tommy Doyle won't be able to participate in the match against his parent club. Nelson Semedo has played as a right-sided centre-back in the last two matches and may retain his spot in the defensive three.

Head-to-Head

Wolves are one of the three Premier League teams that have defeated Manchester City this season: this happened in their first-round match at Molineux (2:1).

Match prediction Manchester City – Wolverhampton

Despite the fact that Wolves do not have any particular tournament motivation, they head to Etihad with optimism, having already defeated Manchester City, Chelsea and Tottenham away from home this season. However, such a scenario seems doubtful at the moment: the "Citizens" are motivated by the championship title race and do not falter in such situations. A demolition is not to be expected though – I'm betting on Wolves with a handicap of +3.