Three things we learned – Manchester City 2-0 Wolverhampton Wanderers

Manchester Metropolis received again to successful methods within the Premier League as they beat Wolverhampton Wanderers on the Etihad Stadium.

Omar Marmoush and Antoine Semenyo scored the objectives as Metropolis, who have been on a 5 recreation winless streak within the Premier League and UEFA Champions League, ended it in opposition to a Wolves facet who stay rooted to the underside of the Premier League – seven factors beneath nineteenth place Burnley.

Listed here are three issues we discovered from Metropolis’s first league victory of 2026:

The assault is extra fluid with out Haaland

And no, don’t learn that as Metropolis being a greater staff with out Erling Haaland. However you’ll be able to’t see that the assault didn’t look higher than it has been in current weeks.

The positioning of Marmoush and Semenyo as inside forwards occupied the minds of each Wolves’s wingbacks and out of doors centre backs, which means there was area within the vast areas for Matheus Nunes and Nico O’Reilly at full again and areas within the pockets for Rayan Cherki and Tijjani Reijnders, the 2 quantity tens.

I’ve beforehand stated Marmoush is a wonderful participant who fits a really particular function (working not fairly as a striker, left winger or a quantity ten, however one thing inbetween,) and in opposition to Rob Edwards’s facet, he performed effectively in that place.

The job for Pep Guardiola now could be discovering a solution to hold the fluid rotations in attacking areas however with Haaland within the staff as effectively.

He could have now received simply the one objective in his final 9 Metropolis appearances, however with the assault functioning round him he’s nonetheless by far one of the best striker within the Premier League and carried Metropolis by way of the beginning of the season with objectives.

It’d be silly to drop him utterly, and I believe the Metropolis boss will likely be trying to find methods to get Haaland into the identical staff as a fluid attacking unit.

Semenyo and Guehi is superb January enterprise

It’s plain that Semenyo has made an enormous distinction to Metropolis’s attacking prowess in his opening few video games on the membership, and primarily based on his debut, it seems Marc Guehi can have the identical impact on the defence.

The previous Crystal Palace captain is composure personified. He’s extraordinarily snug on the ball and is completely unflappable defensively. He was neither outmuscled or outpaced by a ahead all through the sport, and made an ideal block on the finish of a really strong first recreation.

Semenyo, in the meantime, is proving himself to have an actual eye for a objective, with three in his first 4 sporting sky blue.

Not simply that, however he’s a way more effectively rounded participant than he’s given credit score for. He’s dribbler, has a watch for a move and gives a menace operating in behind together with his tempo and energy.

Each had wonderful first halves of the season at Palace and Bournemouth, and Metropolis are being confirmed to have made the correct choice to purchase them in January with the shape they’re exhibiting on the pitch proper now.

Nunes makes an enormous distinction to the staff when match

It was nice to see Matheus Nunes again within the beginning XI.

The transformed full again missed the disastrous video games in opposition to Manchester United and Bodo Glimt and as demonstrated by his efficiency in opposition to his former facet, was maybe extra sorely missed than many deemed he could be.

The Portuguese worldwide is definitely Metropolis’s best choice when taking all issues wanted into consideration to be fullback.

He’s quick, sturdy, one vs one defender and gives an ideal attacking menace. Even his bozo moments that haunted him final season have gotten fewer and additional between.

The likes of Givario Learn, Tino Livramento and even Trent Alexander-Arnold proceed to be linked with Metropolis, however proper now it’s tough to argue that Nunes wouldn’t begin over any of them.