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Gabriel Jesus and Leroy Sane shone as Manchester City eased their way past 10-man Wolves on Monday night.
The easy win keeps City hot on Liverpool’s toes. They remain four points behind the league leaders, with 16 matches left to play.
Jesus – preferred to Sergio Aguero on this occasion – opened the scoring after just ten minutes and made sure of the win when he converted a first-half penalty, won by Raheem Sterling .
The Brazilian was comfortably City’s best player – while Willy Boly was Wolves’ worst. The French centre back made a crunching tackle on Bernardo Silva and was quickly sent off, robbing Wolves of any chance they had of salvaging a draw.
Kevin de Bruyne then made it three with a whipped cross into the box, which snuck into the net.
Show all 23 1 /23Player ratings: Manchester City vs Wolves Player ratings: Manchester City vs Wolves Player ratings: Manchester City vs Wolves We run the rule over the two teams.
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Player ratings: Manchester City vs Wolves Ederson - 6 out of 10 Utterly untested to the point where he decided a foray forward looked interesting as the game drew to a close, much to the delight of the home crowd.
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Player ratings: Manchester City vs Wolves Kyle Walker - 7 Provided constant forward threat and looks rejuvenated after a somewhat shaky Christmas period.
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Player ratings: Manchester City vs Wolves Aymeric Laporte - 7 Lovely pass to Sane for Jesus’ opener. Untroubled in a defensive capacity.
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Player ratings: Manchester City vs Wolves John Stones - 6 Wolves failed to get at the Manchester City defence and thus Stons had very little to do.
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Player ratings: Manchester City vs Wolves Danilo - 7 Danilo gave Pep Guardiola something to think about with an accomplished showing on the left, combining well with Sane.
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Player ratings: Manchester City vs Wolves Fernandinho - 7 An early booking but another typically assured performance with positional solidity and calm passing.
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Player ratings: Manchester City vs Wolves Bernardo Silva - 7 As ever busy on and off the ball. Allowed those around him to flourish.
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Player ratings: Manchester City vs Wolves David Silva - 7 Plenty of possession work of his usual competent fashion on a proud night for Silva, becoming Manchester City’s record Premier League appearance-maker.
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Player ratings: Manchester City vs Wolves Raheem Sterling - 8 Moved superbly throughout and forced Bennett into an ill-advised challenge to draw the penalty.
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Player ratings: Manchester City vs Wolves Gabriel Jesus - 8 Slid home the opener and slotted home the second from the spot. Jesus’ movement and link-up play was excellent, too. Back in form.
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Player ratings: Manchester City vs Wolves Leroy Sané - 8 Pacey surge in behind and calm square pass to set up the first goal. His interplay with Danilo and the Silvas was impressive and influential right through his 73 minutes on the pitch.
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Player ratings: Manchester City vs Wolves Rui Patricio - 7 A number of strong saves
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Player ratings: Manchester City vs Wolves Ryan Bennett - 5 Outstripped by Sterling and a poor recovering tackle to concede the penalty.
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Player ratings: Manchester City vs Wolves Conor Coady - 5 Battled hard as Wolves refused to be utterly blown away. Unfortunate to have his card marked for an own goal.
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Player ratings: Manchester City vs Wolves Willy Boly - 3 Ugly, lunging challenge that drew a deserved red card from referee Craig Pawson.
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Player ratings: Manchester City vs Wolves Matt Doherty - 5 Rather let Sane run free as Manchester City took the lead.
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Player ratings: Manchester City vs Wolves Leander Dendoncker - 6 Looked relatively comfortable on the left of the back three, and will be an option there during Boly’s suspension. A shame to not see him in midfield, however.
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Player ratings: Manchester City vs Wolves Ruben Neves - 5 Kept his position well and he and Moutinho coped as best they could after losing Dendoncker to the back-three.
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Player ratings: Manchester City vs Wolves Jonny - 5 Could perhaps have shot when the opportunity opened up in the first half, with his pass for Jota inaccurate anyway.
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Player ratings: Manchester City vs Wolves Joao Moutinho - 5 Not a night for the experienced Portuguese midfielder, with plenty of running but few chances on the ball.
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Player ratings: Manchester City vs Wolves Raul Jimenez - 5 Isolated throughout the first 45 minutes. Probably the right call to add Traore’s pace and power at half-time to contrast Jimenez’ more traditional forward skills.
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Player ratings: Manchester City vs Wolves Diogo Jota - 5 Could have been more alert to Jonny’s pass looking to find him in Wolves’ sole first-half attack. Otherwise, nothing to do going forward, though he ran hard.
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Here’s how we rated the two teams.
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