The Sky Blues commence their Premier League season at Molineux.
By Joseph Armstrong-Gardner
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Manchester City face Wolverhampton Wanderers in their first game of the 25/26 Premier League season.
There is already a storyline to be written if City left-back Rayan Ait-Nouri makes his league debut for his new employers against his former club.
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Pep Guardiola’s side travel to the Midlands, where they formulated a miraculous comeback victory, with John Stones scoring at the death, the last time they visited Molineux back in October last year.
This time around, both teams are looking to improve upon lackluster campaigns, with Wolves looking to build upon last season’s 16th-place finish and City aiming to become 9-time Premier League champions.
For Manchester City, there are five injury concerns.
The first and most important is Rodri, the Ballon d’Or winner, who sustained a “bad injury” in the Club World Cup defeat by Al-Hilal.
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Guardiola has said that the holding midfielder could feature tentatively in City’s opening few Premier League games, to be “really fit” after the September international break.
Phil Foden has been hampered by an ankle niggle, with Guardiola revealing that it would be touch and go whether he would play at Molineux. However, with new No.10 Rayan Cherki already impressing at the Club World Cup, the impact of Foden’s absence will be minimised with the French playmaker filling that void accordingly.
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Mateo Kovacic is a definite absentee with a calf problem, and he is likely to be sidelined until September at the earliest.
Defender Gvardiol is also recovering from a knock and is unavailable to play this weekend, while Claudio Echeverri missed much of the Club World Cup campaign with a minor injury.
In his pre-match press conference, Guardiola ruled out Savinho with an injury. This comes after Tottenham recently had a €70 million bid rejected by Manchester City for the Brazilian winger.
City has a pool of new signings that they could hand Premier League debuts to.
Tijjani Reijnders, Ait Nouri, and Rayan Cherki have all been integrated into the side building chemistry between their new City teammates during the Club World Cup. All 3 could be given debuts if given the green light by Guardiola.
James Trafford, re-signed from Burnley, is also in contention after starting the friendly against sister club Palermo last week. The strong possibility that he starts in net comes from the speculation circulating City’s current No.1 Ederson, who has been closely linked with a move to Galatasaray.
Wolves will be without injured duo Leon Chiwone due to a knee injury and Fabio Silva as a result of a thigh problem, the latter of whom is also the subject of interest from several European clubs and is expected to leave before the transfer window closes.
However, good news for Wolves as Yerson Mosquera is fit to begin as a substitute after making progress in his recovery from a knee problem.
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Wolverhampton Wanderers’ predicted starting lineup (3-4-2-1):
Sa; Doherty, Agbadou, Toti; Hoever, J. Gomes, Andre, Wolfe; Lopez, Arias; Strand Larsen
Manchester City’s predicted starting lineup (4-2-3-1):
Trafford; Nunes, Akanji, Dias, Ait-Nouri; Silva, Reijnders; Doku, Cherki, Marmoush; Haaland
Doubts: Foden, Rodri, Gvardiol, Echeverri
Injured: Kovacic, Savinho (for City), Chiwone, Silva (for Wolves)
Time and date: 5.30 pm BST today, Saturday, August 16th 2025
Venue: Molineux
How to watch: Sky Sports