Manchester City put down the marker against Wolves at Molineux Stadium earlier today.
Though City appeared only to find their stride in patches, it was ominously good, smooth and aggressive when it fell into place.
Tijjani Reijnders ran the show – a proper box-to-box midfielder who exudes balance and poise – from the off. His ability to dribble, the proper African or South American dribble, not the running with the ball in a straight line, the English think, qualifies for the art, with both feet in something of a wonder. At this rate, by the end of the season, City fans will be asking, “Kevin Who?”.
In most instances, it would be a flight of fancy to even think City’s Dutchman is an upgrade on the Belgian midfield master, but on this display, it’s without question that that bold statement is true.
‘Flying Dutchman’ doesn’t describe Reijnders – ‘Gliding Dutchman’ does, though.
In the 34th minute, he did just that, gliding through midfield past four opponents as if the referee had yet to kick the game off. As he entered the danger area, he scooped the ball over to Rico Lewis to square to the far post, where he knew Erling Haaland would be loitering. The Norwegian tapped the ball in for the opener. Simple.
It is surprising that Rayan Cherki, who is also one of City’s midfield recruits, possesses this freakish two-foot ability.
In the creation of the opening goal, Reijnders, the right-footer, was the magician. When he netted his first for the club and second of the game, Reijnders was undoubtedly the left-foot master.
The construction of the second is what will cause the other 19 contenders for the 2025-26 English Premier League trophy.
A Pep Guardiola default is the high press. This is what his teams do when they reset. As they establish themselves and put the fear of Guardiola in their opposition, they then relax on the ball.
This was a vintage Guardiola reset, a marker for the season. It was from such a press that the second goal came.
Wolves’ Toti Gomes played out from defence. I have no idea what had possessed him. He was immediately put under pressure, as City had done all day. Panicked, he played a loose ball into midfield that was picked up by Oscar Bobb, who fed Reijnders wide on the left for a first-time finish into the bottom corner of José Sa’s goal four minutes after he had let in the first—game over, by all accounts. However, Haaland and Reijnders showed no mercy. What is it they say about making hay while the sun shines?
On the hour mark, Reijnders again sprinkled his stardust. He then squared to Haaland from a tight angle on the right for the towering Norwegian to score his second and third of the game.
Cherki did eventually come on in the 73rd minute to replace the brace hero with the game done and dusted. With only seven minutes under his belt, Cherki scored a stylish goal after a cheeky flick and one-two build-up with Omar Marmoush. The Frenchman, celebrating his 22nd birthday tomorrow, then drilled one with his right foot past Sa.
In an earlier fixture, Graham Porter of West Ham United announced himself the frontrunner for first manager for the sack this season when his team went wimpishly down 3-nil to newly promoted Sunderland.
What should jolt majority owner David Sullivan into pulling the trigger is that Sunderland players are so new to the team that they would have only met at full-time.
Final scores:
City 4, Wolves 0
Tottenham Hotspur 3, Burnley 0
Aston Villa 0, Newcastle United 0
