City hold off Wolves charge

Manchester City eventually prevailed against Woves after being forced to hold off a strong late challenge.

Adebayor on the scoresheet in 1-0 victory

Manchester City maintained their perfect start to the new season with a narrow home victory over a determined Wolves side. Emmanuel Adebayor struck early for the second time in two games when he latched onto a neat pass from Carlos Tevez and fired inside of Wayne Hennessey's near post. The visitors were barely in the game during the first half, with Matthew Jarvis' well-hit long-range effort being the closest they came. However, Wolves threatened regularly after the break and Andy Keogh almost levelled the scores when he fired a shot beyond Given only to see the ball cannon off the bar to safety. Mick McCarthy's never managed to find the finishing touch and the hosts hung on to secure a second consecutive league win.

Attack

The opening goal was part of an awesome period of attacking play from the hosts, who must have been left scratching their heads at how they failed to score more than one before the break. The breakthrough came when Jody Craddock nodded a Wayne Bridge cross into the path of Tevez, who cushioned the ball into Adebayor's path and a clinical finish followed. Robinho also had chances to score, the second but Hennessey managed to keep him out on both occasion. Adebayor had another opportunity to widen the gap, as did Tevez, while Gareth Barry was not too far away with a curling free-kick. Despite the impressive attacking, Mark Hughes must have been relieved to head into half-time level after Given kept out Jarvis' fantastic effort. The central defensive duo of Kolo Toure and Richard Dunne were given the slip by the midfielder before Given leapt superbly to claw away a shot that would otherwise have ended up in the top right corner.

Chances

The home crowd must have been left disappointed after City failed to take just any one of the three gilt-edged chances that came their way at the start of the second half. But Stephen Ireland inexplicably pushed his shot wide after taking Robinho's return pass and Adebayor's first touch was too heavy when clean through, forcing him to go wide and fire into the side-netting shortly afterwards Shortly after, Robinho tapped home Wright-Phillips' low cross to the far post but had drifted offside in the build-up. So, instead of a comfortable cruise to the final whistle, City were forced to endure a lengthy period of Wolves pressure, in which Keogh was the central figure. He was unlucky not to score when Kolo Toure touched Hennessey's long punt downfield into his path. However, his shot came crashing back off the crossbar with City keeper Given beaten all ends up. Wolves maintained their forward charge but did not manage to get any nearer to bringing the scores level.

Manchester City	Team Statistics	Wolverhampton Wanderers
1	Goals	0
1	1st Half Goals	0
7	Shots on Target	2
5	Shots off Target	8
5	Blocked Shots	1
5	Corners	6
9	Fouls	12
6	Offsides	3
0	Yellow Cards	1
0	Red Cards	0
80	Passing Success	71.5
18	Tackles	23
77.8	Tackles Success	82.6
58.1	Possession	41.9
45.3	Territorial Advantage	54.7