Wolves v Man City: New-look Citizens can claim opening game win at 7/5 | OneFootball

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Wolves v Manchester CitySaturday, 17:30

Big-name departures suggest season of struggle

Having survived relegation with room to spare last season, thanks in large to a remarkable run of six consecutive league wins towards the end of the campaign, you'd perhaps forgive Wolves fans for being much more optimistic about their survival chances going into this season.

But that's far from being the case.

Vitor Pereira's men accumulated the magical 42 points last term - widely regarded as the barrier for survival - but Wolves will commence the new season with arguably a much weaker squad having lost their star man - 15-goal striker Matheus Cunha - experienced defender Nelson Semedo, and their energetic wing-back Rayan Ait-Nouri. Those three players alone made 104 Premier League appearances between them last term.

Consider also that Wolves have lost Goncalo Guides (29 appearances), Tommy Doyle (24) and Pablo Sarabia (23) then it's easy to understand why some of the Molineux faithful are worried about the strength and size of their squad.

Wolves are just 3/1 to be relegated this season.

Much change but City look stronger

Like Wolves, there's been a lot of personnel changes at Manchester City also, but it's hard to disagree with the view that Pep Guardiola's squad has been strengthened rather than weakened.

After a first half of the season that very few people saw coming, City made a string of January signings including Omar Marmoush, Abdokodir Khusanov and Nico Gonzalez, with that trio helping the team recover from a poor spell of results to eventually finish third in the table.

Brilliant midfielder Kevin de Bruyne, experienced defender Kyle Walker and fellow Englishman Jack Grealish have left this summer, but City have recruited exciting winger Rayan Cherki, defender Rayan Ait-Nouri - who will face his former club on Saturday evening - highly regarded midfielder Tijjani Reijnders and exciting youngster Sverre Nypan.

But perhaps crucial to what many expect to be a better season for City is the return of influential midfielder Rodri who missed all of last term with an ACL injury. Recent reports say the 29-year-old is still short of full match fitness, but there's no denying that a fully fit Rodri will play a big part in a Man City title charge.

And we haven't even mentioned the likes of Erling Haaland, Phil Foden and Bernardo Silva! Man City have drifted out to 7/2 to win the Premier League title, and that's starting to look a big price.

Former champs can with with ease

Manchester City are 1/2 favourites - or 4/9 if you prefer the insurance of the Match Odds 90 market - to start the season with a win on Saturday and I won't be surprised at all if they do exactly that, and in fact produce a statement victory.

It's easy to forget that Guardiola's men were odds-on in some quarters to win a fifth consecutive title last season and they commenced the campaign with seven wins and two draws in their opening nine games. A poor run of form in November and December took them out of the title race, but they finished strongly (W7-D3-L0)  and look to have a better squad going into this season.

As well as the boost they will get from Rodri's return from serious injury, Haaland will be determined to win back his Golden Boot and I expect Foden to get back to his best after a dip in form last term. Having originally fancied Liverpool to defend their crown, I'm now starting to think that whoever finishes above Man City this season will be crowned Premier League champions.

City have a very winnable opening-game fixture against a Wolves side that look - on paper - to be weaker than the one that struggled for 80% of last season, and I just can't look beyond an away victory here.

Man City can be backed at 7/5 to win by covering the -1 handicap and I'm of the opinion that's a price well worth taking.

Get new man Cherki on side in Safe Sub and Match Ups

While the City win covering a -1 handicap will be my main bet of the game, I can't let City's new winger Rayan Cherki go un-backed in two separate assist markets.

No player provided more assists in France's Ligue 1 last season than the 21-year-old and he was also top for assists in the Europa League. He registered eight assists in his last 15 league appearances for Lyon and in City's only real pre-season friendly - a 3-0 win over Palermo - Cherki played in a front three alongside Haaland and Marmoush, hinting that the Frenchman is going to be one of Guardiola's main attacking threats this season.

In a game that I expect City to win comfortably, a price of 11/4 about Cherki registering an assist makes plenty of appeal.

And with Betfair's new product 'Safe Sub' coming into play, you don't have to worry about Cherki not completing the full game. If he starts and then gets substituted before registering an assist, your wager then rolls on to the player replacing Cherki - possibly someone like Oscar Bobb, Jeremy Doku or Savinho.

Alternatively, if you want to boost the price of Cherki registering an assist to 7/2 then you can use Betfair's Match Ups product to back him to register more assists than Bernardo Silva.

The price you pay for for the slightly better odds is that if Silva also registers an assist, or registers the same amount of assists as Cherki, then your bet will be settled as a loser.

Silva registered just four Premier League assists last term for a return of one assist every 667 minutes. Cherki registered 11 assists in Ligue 1 for a return of one assist every 186 minutes, so if choosing to back Cherki at 7/2 in a Match Ups bet against Silva then the stats are heavily in your favour.