Manchester City 2-0 Wolves, Premier League: Semenyo Scores Again As Guardiola's Side Bounce Back

Antoine Semenyo netted his first Premier League goal for Manchester City, who earned their first league win of 2026 with a 2-0 victory over Wolves.

After a disappointing week that included back-to-back losses to Manchester United and Bodo/Glimt, City closed the gap to leaders Arsenal to four points.

City – who started the game with Erling Haaland and Phil Foden on the bench – took a sixth-minute lead, with Omar Marmoush stretching to poke Matheus Nunes' cross in.

And he came close to a second shortly after the half-hour mark when he cut inside from the left, only to strike the foot of the right post.

There were handball shouts against Yerson Mosquera in the immediate aftermath, but the referee retained the onfield decision of no spot-kick following a VAR review, with the defender's arm deemed to be in a natural position.

But Semenyo made sure of the points in the second minute of first-half stoppage time; after getting into a pocket of space on the edge of the box, he curled his low strike past Jose Sa.

Wolves grew into the contest in the second half without troubling Gianluigi Donnarumma, though Mosquera's looping header hit the crossbar minutes after Semenyo had rattled the goal frame at the other end, with neither side adding to the scoreline after the break.

Data Debrief: City end their recent blues

It was a pretty routine win for City in the end, though they still did not hit their top free-flowing best as they accumulated just 0.92 expected goals (xG) to Wolves' 0.59.

But they remain unbeaten in their last 31 Premier League games against opponents starting the day bottom of the table (W25 D6), since a 1-2 defeat to West Brom in December 2008.

Semenyo became the first player to score on his home Premier League debut for City since Jack Grealish in August 2021 (against Norwich City).

But more notably, since Haaland joined the club in the summer of 2022, City have won 18 of their 22 league games in which the Norwegian has not started (D2 L2), a win rate of 82%, compared to 63% with him in the starting line-up (73/115).

As for Wolves, they remain bottom and 14 points from safety. It was Rob Edwards' 50th Premier League game as a manager, and his 32nd defeat (W7 D11).