English Premier
2025-05-02 - Manchester City vs Wolves
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
Football: English Premier League
Friday 2nd May 2025 - Kick Off 8pm
This game is live on TV
Manchester City
Pep Guardiola will obviously be proud to lead Manchester City out in the FA Cup Final for a third year in a row, but he reminded his players not to 'confuse' this as a success for the season. Winning trophies will always be important, but Manchester City expect to be challenging for the biggest prizes and have come up well short of that in 2024/25.
Two ambitions remain over the last month of the season and that is winning the FA Cup and finishing in the Champions League spots in the Premier League. They are 4th in the standings before Nottingham Forest play on Thursday and Manchester City look to have the 'kindest' of the remaining schedule, but that will not count for much if they do not get the job done on the field. The side play at home on Friday where Manchester City have a 11-3-3 record in the Premier League.
Manchester City are unbeaten in 8 games in all competitions and they have won 4 in a row to build some late season momentum. The very late winner against Aston Villa last week means Manchester City have won 3 Premier League games in a row at the Etihad Stadium and scored at least twice in each victory.
Rodri may yet play for Manchester City again before the end of the Premier League season, while the likes of John Stones and Erling Haaland are edging closer and closer to returns of their own. Pep Guardiola will likely rotate his starting eleven with the likes of Kevin De Bruyne hoping to be restored to the first team.
Wolves
An incredible run of form has not only secured Wolves' future as a Premier League club, but they have moved up into mid-table. Vitor Pereira has done a really good job as manager and he will be hoping the club is going to offer some financial support in the summer with rumours suggesting Matheus Cunha will be moving on.
At the moment the only focus is to keep the good form going for as long as possible and Wolves are up into 13th place and looking to continue to move up the League standings. The side have a 6-3-8 record away from home in the top flight this season and 41 points have already been secured.
Wolves were comfortable 3-0 home winners over Leicester City last Saturday and they have won 6 Premier League games in a row. Their last away fixture ended in a 0-1 at Manchester United and Wolves have won 4 away Premier League games in a row since narrowly being beaten at Anfield in February.
Sam Johnstone and Pedro Lima are hoping to be available for selection. However, manager Vitor Pereira may stick with a winning team after the comfortable victory over Leicester City last time out.
Head to Head
Manchester City came from behind and scored an injury time winner at Molineux back in October.
They have won 4 in a row when hosting Wolves at the Etihad Stadium and 3 of those wins have been by two or more goals.
Prediction
Friday Night Football will focus on the Champions League race in the Premier League and Manchester City have a chance to put the pressure on their rivals when playing first this weekend.
They will have dropped a place if Nottingham Forest have beaten Brentford twenty-four hours earlier, but Pep Guardiola will be reminding his players that they are in control of a Champions League spot and will return to that competition by concentrating on their own results.
It has not been the best of seasons, but Manchester City look to have found some form at the right time.
The wins have not been put together as in previous years, but they are winning plenty of football matches now and Manchester City are scoring a lot of goals even through the continued absence of Erling Haaland.
The Norwegian striker has scored a hat-trick in big homes wins over Wolves in each of the last two seasons, but Manchester City will still be confident they can get the job done here after putting 3 straight home Premier League wins on the board.
Respect has to be given to Wolves for the recent performances and the 6 straight wins produced, but they have been battling through a very kind fixture list and this is the toughest test the team will have faced in a while. They did recently win 0-1 at Old Trafford, but Wolves had not been that convincing on that day and Manchester United had a weaker than expected team start that fixture, which is not expected to be the case for Manchester City as they continue their push for a top five place.
Wolves do have players that can cause problems in the final third and Manchester City are still a little vulnerable at the back.
However, it may be asking a lot to contain the hosts who have scored at least twice in wins over Leicester City, Crystal Palace and Aston Villa at the Etihad Stadium. Momentum is back with Manchester City and the confidence can only have improved after booking a spot in the FA Cup Final on Sunday and that can be key to securing another solid home win over Wolves on Friday.
The home team may have to ride out some difficult moments, but they have shown plenty of character of late and Manchester City can find the goals to secure another priceless three points.
The Statistics :
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The Pick :
Manchester City 3-1 Wolves
