City back with a swagger as Wolves swept off the park

The winds of change are blowing through Manchester City but some things remain the same.

- NEIL MOXLEY

Wolverhampton Wanderers 0

Manchester City Haaland (34, 61), Reijnders (37), Cherki (81) 4

Different faces and a different time - but that old familiar swagger returned at Molineux. Three thousand travelling supporters, basking in the sunshine along the foot of the Steve Bull Stand, sang: “City are back.”

Had they ever really been away?

Two years have passed since the epoch-defining treble and only four of the side that started on the club's greatest night in Istanbul were named by Pep Guardiola at Molineux. And two of them - John Stones and Bernardo Silva - are in the final year of their contract.

There’s no Kevin de Bruyne, no Rodri and no Jack Grealish. Moved on, laid up and kicked out. Ederson - the cornerstone of everything Guardiola stands for - is on the cusp of a move to Turkey. Club warrior Kyle Walker is finding out how the other half live in Burnley. And Ilkay Gundogan, on the substitutes’ bench, should have 999 on the back of his shirt: only to be used in an emergency.

It feels like a new page was being turned at Molineux.

And this new-model side needs to reestablish the credentials that carried it to so much success. This was a pretty good start.

Manchester City’s cloak of invincibility was torn - not shredded last season but this is elite sport and, as the watching public is told repeatedly, the margins are fine.