Reijnders, Trafford and Ait-Nouri start at Wolves | OneFootball

New boys Tijjani Reijnders, James Trafford and Rayan Ait-Nouri all start for City this afternoon at Wolves.

City begin our 2025/26 campaign today in a 17:30 (UK) kick-off at Molineux with the trio of summer signings all named in the First XI.

Reijnders arrived from AC Milan, Trafford returned from Burnley while Ait-Nouri was with tonight’s opponents before switching to City in June.

Fellow new arrival Rayan Cherki is on the bench for the West Midlands opening day encounter.

New captain Bernardo Silva skippers the side.

Mateo Kovacic, Savinho and Marcus Bettinelli are all injured, Josko Gvardiol, Claudio Echeverri and Kalvin Phillips are not fully fit while Ederson misses out because of illness.

TEAMS

WOLVES XI: Sa, Doherty, Agbadou, Toti Gomes, Hoever, Joao Gomes, Andre, Wolfe, Bellegarde, Larsen, Munetsi

Subs: Johnstone, Hugo Bueno, Santiago Bueno, Arias, Hwang, Mosquera, Kalajdzic, Rodrigo Gomes, Lopez

CITY XI: Trafford, Lewis, Stones, Dias, Ait-Nouri, Nico, Bernardo (C), Bobb, Reijnders, Doku, Haaland

Subs: Ortega Moreno, Ake, Marmoush, Cherki, Gundogan, Akanji, Nunes, O'Reilly, Khusanov

TACTICS

James Trafford starts in goal and will be protected by Rico Lewis, John Stones, Ruben Dias and Rayan Ait-Nouri.

Ahead of them, Tijjani Reijnders, Nico and Bernardo Silva will likely patrol the midfield with Oscar Bobb and Jeremy Doku up top in support of Erling Haaland.

Haaland the fast starter

Erling Haaland will be looking for a flying start to his Premier League season today.

And, if history is anything to go by, he’s got a good chance of achieving it.

If you’re looking for goals on the opening day, look no further than star striker Haaland.

The Norwegian has scored in all three of his Matchday One appearances since arriving at City.

In 2022/23, as we started our Treble-winning adventure, Haaland bagged a brace against West Ham in a 2-0 win at the London Stadium, the second seeing him showcase his meditative goal celebration for the first time.

The following season, in our Four-in-a-Row campaign, he again scored two as the Blues saw off Burnley 3-0, Rodri bagging the third.

Then, last season, the ferocious forward bagged the opener in a 2-0 away triumph at Chelsea with Mateo Kovacic sealing all three points at Stamford Bridge.

Here's to another goal-laden performance at Molineux.

Interestingly, Haaland has only scored more Premier League goals against West Ham  than he has against Wolves – nine to eight – so the signs certainly look good this afternoon.

Happy return?

City summer signing Rayan Ait-Nouri makes an immediate return to Molineux this afternoon after his summer move from Wolves to City.

He was a hugely popular figure with gold and black supporters, making 135 league appearances for the club between 2020 and 2025.

The left-back becomes the fourth player to make his Premier League debut for City against a side he previously played for.

He follows in the footsteps of Danny Granville (v Leeds in 2000), Tommy Wright (v Newcastle in 2000) and Craig Bellamy (v Newcastle in 2009).

Granville and Bellamy both enjoyed victories in their games so let’s hope Ait-Nouri can make it a hat-trick.

Opposition respect

Wolves will be going all-out victory this afternoon but there’s a real respect for City from the men from Molineux.

Speaking to the media ahead of today’s game, manager Vitor Pereira and new signing Fer Lopez were both glowing in their praise of the Blues.

“Next game is Manchester City and I know it’s a big challenge,” said the opposition boss.

“Pep is maybe the best manager in the world and is someone that has the capacity to reinvent himself, and he needs to now reinvent his team.

“He’s a top manager and I admire him because he gives a lot to football, he gives new things new – it’s like discovering different worlds and he’s trying every time to discover something new. But I also feel football like this.”

Meanwhile Spaniard Lopez was Pereira’s first summer signing and he’s relishing the clash with City on the opening day.

“City are a top team, they’re one of the best teams in the world, with one of the best managers in the world in Pep Guardiola,” he added.

“My main goal is to try to do as best as I can to help the team win.

“I’m a player who likes to play in those ‘big games’ and I think everyone enjoys those kinds of games more.

“Especially at home in front of the fans, it’s going to be very exciting.”

WATCH: Wolves v City: The new season is here!

MATCH STATS

-Wolves have lost nine of their last 10 Premier League meetings with City (W1), although their one victory in this period did come at Molineux early in the season, winning 2-1 in September 2023 under Gary O'Neil.

-Across the last five Premier League campaigns, City have won the joint-most games (4) and scored the most goals (14) of any side when facing Wolves at Molineux (W4 D0 L1 F14 A5).

-This will be the ninth consecutive Premier League campaign that City have started with an away game, while we’ve won seven of the previous eight (L1), scoring 19 goals and only conceding twice across those matches.

-City have won our opening league game in 13 of the last 14 seasons, with the exception being a 1-0 loss at Tottenham Hotspur in 2021/22.

WATCH: Watch: Our last 10 goals away at Wolves

-Having been unbeaten in their opening league match in eight consecutive campaigns between 2013/14 and 2020/21 (W4 D4), Wolves have lost on Matchday One in each of the last four seasons.

-After a six-game winning run in March and April, Wolves failed to win any of their final four Premier League games of 2024/25 (D1 L3).

-City have lost just one of our last 31 Premier League games in August (W26 D4), going down 1-0 at Spurs in their opening game of the 2021/22 season. We’ve won our last eight August games by an aggregate score of 25-5.