Foden, Haaland and Kovacic start against Wolves | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola has made three changes to his City side for this afternoon's Premier League clash with Wolves.

Phil Foden, Erling Haaland and Mateo Kovacic all come in to the side that defeated Nottingham Forest last weekend.

Foden missed that game with illness while Haaland and Kovacic were second half substitutes.

City v Wolves | Matchday Centre

Making way for them are Julian Alvarez, Jeremy Doku and Jack Grealish.

We know victory today will take us just one point behind Premier League leaders Arsenal with a game in hand.

Teams

CITY XI: Ederson, Walker (C), Akanji, Ake, Gvardiol, Rodrigo, Kovacic, De Bruyne, Foden, Bernardo, Haaland

Subs: Ortega Moreno, Dias, Stones, Grealish, Doku, Alvarez, Gomez, Nunes, Lewis

WATCH: Guardiola: Pressure and expectation is vital

Tactics

Ederson will be guarded by a defence of captain Kyle Walker, Manuel Akanji, Nathan Ake and Josko Gvardiol.

Rodrigo and Mateo Kovacic will provide a solid base in midfield with Phil Foden, Bernardo Silva and Kevin De Bruyne looking to create for central striker Erling Haaland.

Build from the back

This is the third straight Premier League game which has seen a back five of Ederson, Walker, Akanji, Ake and Gvardiol.

Given we've kept clean sheets in our last two outings, it appears to be a tactic that's working.

There was a doubt about Ederson's fitness earlier in the week after having to come off at Forest, but the Brazilian was back in training with a smile on his face on Thursday.

Ahead of him, Ake and Akanji have struck up a very effective partnership in the centre while Walker and Gvardiol provide a real threat in wide areas.

Gvardiol has even been supplying goals - three in his last five appearances.

WATCH: Stat attack: City v Wolves

Match stats

● City have won seven of our last eight home Premier League matches against Wolves, losing the other 2-0 in October 2019.

● Since completing a league double over City in 1960-61, Wolves have managed just one top-flight double over the Citizens in 25 seasons, doing so in the 2019-20 campaign. They beat us 2-1 earlier this season at Molineux.

●Manchester City are unbeaten in our last 19 Premier League games (W15 D4). We’ve already had four runs of 20+ without defeat in the competition (three under Pep Guardiola), and could be the second side to do so five times after Manchester United (seven).

● City are unbeaten in our last 31 games in all competitions (W25 D6). The last Premier League team to have a longer run were Manchester United, who went 33 games without defeat between December and May in the 1998-99 campaign.

● Wolves’ 2-1 win over Luton last time out ended a six-game winless run in the Premier League (D2 L4). Only twice this season have they had runs of consecutive victories, winning three in a row in December and two in a row in February.

● Kevin De Bruyne has started six Premier League matches against Wolves and has both scored five goals and assisted five goals against them, although nine of those involvements came at Molineux (5 goals, 4 assists).

●De Bruyne’s two assists in City’s 2-0 win against Nottingham Forest last time out took his overall tally in the Premier League to 110; he’s now just one behind second placed Cesc Fàbregas in the all-time ranking in the competition.