Manchester City travel supporters in Molineux were in full voice, singing “the city are back” because men Pep Guardiola started the Premier League campaign commanding 4-0 victories over Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday. However, Guardiola quickly alleviated expectations and stressed that one strong victory does not guarantee a revival after disappointment in third place last season.
“Start is a good result, but not more than last season,” Guardiola Sky Sports said. “Last season we started against Chelsea with a victory of 2-0 and looked at what happened later. We also started hunger and energy.
While the Wolves performance indicated the refreshed side of the city, Guardiola admitted that his team was an urgent problem: its absolute size. With 30 higher professionals in books, Catalan believes that imbalance is unsustainable and harmful to morality.
“We have too many people,” he said. “It’s not about Eddy (Ederson). Today we didn’t have Rodri, Phil (Foden), Mateo (Kovacic), Savinho or Josko (Gvardiol). We had Nathan (Ake) and Gundo (Ilkay Gundogan) on the bench that cannot compete in all competitions.
Guardiola confirmed that several departures are expected before closing the transfer window, while in September at least half a dozen players are likely to move on.
The Spaniard also adapts to life without Kevin de Bruyne, missing after the summer departure, while Rodri is injured. Jack Grealish last week completed the loan switch to Everton and goalkeeper Ederson – connected with a move to Turkey – noticed the wolves of the clash of diseases.
But there were positives. The summer signatures of Tijjani Reijnders and Rayan Cherki recorded their debut, while the young goalkeeper James Trafford impressed the composite display. Erling Haaland, as always, provided the tip with the orthosis.
“Tijani is an exceptional player, one of the best from Serie and,” Guardiola said. “It has an incredible rhythm. New players have given us a larger group, but now we have to find a balance. We will have to use the whole group, but it is important to reduce the number to maintain the right vibration.”
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Published:
Saurabh Kumar
Published on:
August 17, 2025
