The Manchester City Project

Manchester City host Wolves at the City of Manchester Stadium for the first home game of the season today. Emmanuel Adebayor (groin), Robinho (ankle), Wayne Bridge (hamstring) and Zabaleta (calf) will all have late fitness tests before the game. However Mark Hughes is confident that they may all be available for selection:

“Emmanuel had a bit of discomfort but we fully expect it to resolve itself and Robi has discomfort just above his ankle and we also fully expect he will be available for selection too.”

Carlos Tevez is expected to get his first start of the season today.

Wolves will be without striker Sylvan Ebanks-Blake who will be a big miss after firing Wolves to promotion last year. Keven Foley at right back (knee) will also miss the game. Forwards Chris Iwelumo (foot) and winger Michael Kightly (foot and hip) remain long term absenties.

Mark Hughes wants to play strong attacking football, however he is also aware that Wolves my come to get men behind the ball and stop City from playing:

“Our aim to always play entertaining football; that is how the squad is built and that is what we will be trying to do. We have a lot of quality in the final third and we want to replicate our home form of last season,”

“Wolves are off the mark all ready and their confidence should be high after coming into the Premier League off the back of a great season. Sides new to this league are nearly always more of a threat at the beginning of the season when their confidence is high and has not been pricked somewhat. They will be full of enthusiasm coming here.

“They will not come to us with any apprehension and we will see how they approach it. They could very well get lots of people behind the ball but they could also think ‘let’s be positive and see what happens.”

Probable line up for City: Given, Richards, Dunne, Toure, Bridge, Ireland, Barry, Wright-Phillips, Petrov, Adebayor, Tevez

If you wish to watch the game via live stream then click here.

Manchester City (from): Given, Zabaleta, Dunne, Toure, Ben Haim, Onuoha, Bridge, De Jong, Barry, Ireland, Wright-Phillips, Weiss, Robinho, Adebayor, Bellamy, Tevez, Richards, Garrido, Etuhu, Vidal, McGivern, Petrov, Benjani, Taylor.

Wolves (from): Hennessey, Hahnemann, Ikeme, Stearman, Berra, Craddock, Mancienne, Zubar, Ward, Elokobi, Hill, Halford, Surman, Henry, Milijas, Jones, Jarvis, Edwards, Keogh, Vokes, Doyle, Spray..