Manchester City have kept themselves in the Premier League title race with a good result at the end of a difficult week.
Marc Guehi celebrates with teammates.
Manchester City battled for their clean sheet - and win - over Wolves.(Image: )
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No Erling Haaland, no Phil Foden, and no refunds. Pep Guardiola got the response he wanted from two bad defeats as Manchester City looked better and fresher in beating Wolves 2-0. A title challenge may still feel a way off after a damaging start to 2026, but the Blues moved to four points off top spot ahead of Arsenal's match with Manchester United on Sunday afternoon.
Guardiola had spoken of needing to "change the dynamic" after their shock beating in Bodo, and that translated to Haaland being benched for the first time in Premier League this season, and Foden for the first time since August. Telling City's two biggest source of goals in this campaign to sit it out was always going to be a major talking point, but for the first time in a while the stand-ins stepped up.
Omar Marmoush has been away at the Africa Cup of Nations but had not really started his season before that, not helped by injury but doing little to suggests he should be starting either alongside Haaland or instead of him. That changed here against Wolves from the moment that he flung himself at Matheus Nunes's cross to open the scoring in the sixth minute.
Guardiola spoke on Friday about the knock-on effect of injuries in his squad; fatigue. As players ran themselves into the ground again and again, City looked more and more like they were slower in the moment, late in the actions, as they let leads slip against Chelsea and Brighton and then fell to limp defeats against United and Bodo/Glimt.
With Haaland watching from the bench, Marmoush made the difference - as too did Nunes. It was a terrific cross from the Portugal international and it does not seem coincidence that City's two limp performances over the last week came while he was laid low with flu.
Having bemoaned the situation with his squad, it was also useful for Guardiola to have £82.5m of new talent to be able to call on for the Wolves game - and Antoine Semenyo continued his fine start to life at the Etihad Stadium by earning space in the box with his first touch from Bernardo Silva's ball to allow him to finish past Jose Sa for City's second. At the other end of the pitch, Marc Guehi could not have asked for a kinder introduction to his new team.
The week that they have had with their defensive frailties emphatically punished means they cannot afford to get carried away though - perhaps why Guehi's late block to protect the clean sheet saw Gianluigi Donnarumma, Foden and Guehi rush over to him to celebrate. The spirit is there, and the competition for places may be starting to return as well.
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