Manchester City saw their perfect start to the 2023–24 Premier League season end following a 2-1 defeat against Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Pep Guardiola’s men suffered a League Cup defeat to Newcastle United in their last outing but were firm favourites to see off Wolves, who had lost each of the most recent six meetings before Saturday’s clash.
Similar to their last league encounter against Nottingham Forest where they netted twice inside the opening 14 minutes, Man City flew out of the blocks as they looked to exert dominance early on.
However, it was Wolves who opened the scoring, albeit with a stroke of luck as Ruben Dias inadvertently put the ball past his own goalkeeper when attempting to stop a cross.
Having gone behind, City upped the ante in front of goal and perhaps should have levelled matters just shy of the half-hour mark through Nathan Ake, who squandered a glorious opportunity.
Phil Foden threatened the Wolves’ goal shortly afterwards off the back of a mazy run before seeing his effort dealt with by Jose Sa.
Fg off against Wolves for the first time since joining Man City, Matheus Nunes almost got one over his former employers in first-half stoppage time but for some excellent goalkeeping.
Dias had the final chance of the opening 45 minutes and nearly made amends for his earlier error, only to be denied by the opposing goalkeeper.
Man City continued to pile on the pressure after the restart, with Erling Braut Haaland calling Sa into action following a relatively quiet first half.
Sa had repelled everything thrown his way until that point, but he had no answer to Julian Alvarez’s stunning freekick 13 minutes into the second half.
Man City ll but sure to go on to claim the win, although Wolves had other ideas as they took the lead for the second time through Hwang Hee-Chan after some excellent work from Matheus Cunha.
The reigning English champions went in search of parity once again but failed to conjure up enough attacking threat in the final knockings of the game and were condemned to a first league defeat since the final day of last season.
Man City remain top of the standings after seven matches, although their lead has now been cut down to just one point.
