The second weekend of the Premier League season concluded with Monday’s match between Manchester City and Wolverhampton Wanderers. And while it ended 3-1 in favor of visiting City, which got first-half goals from Kevin de Bruyne and Phil Foden and another by Gabriel Jesus deep into second-half stoppage time, the contest was significantly closer than it seems.
A big part of the reason for that was the continued excellence of Wolves’ Mexican striker Raúl Jiménez, who scored for the second time in as many weeks. City had most of the ball in the match, as one might expect given their high-priced, all-world squad. They created more scoring opportunities, including a 9-1 advantage in on-target shots.
Jiménez converted his chance to make things nervy for Pep Guardiola’s side late, at least until Jesus’s strike sealed the three points for the Sky Blues:
De Bruyne opened the scoring in the 20th minute from the penalty spot after being taken down in the box by Romain Saiss.
Foden doubled the Cityzens’ advantage in the 32nd minute, but most of the credit for the goal goes to Raheem Sterling, who found his England international team teammate with a slick cutback pass:
The final bit of quality appeared to be missing on the night for Wolves — until Jiménez cut their powerful foe’s lead in half with an unstoppable header past City keeper Ederson:
That was as close as Wolves would get, though, as City became the first team in Premier League history to win its opening match of the season for 10 consecutive years.