Man City vs Wolves Odds: Back Laporte to pick up a booking

Manchester City welcome Wolves to the Etihad Stadium for Saturday’s early kick-off, and will have to quickly get over Wednesday’s defeat to RB Leipzig as they look to set the pace at the top of the Premier League. Their midweek loss in Germany didn’t necessarily mean anything for their qualification prospects but the manner of it was strange - and not just because of Kyle Walker’s mindless red card. 

Given the opportunity to rest several first team players in what was essentially a friendly, Guardiola opted to give just three minutes of action to any member of his travelling contingent of youth talent. It was made to look even more bizarre when title rivals Liverpool went to Milan later that same day with a 19-year-old in midfield and two debutants off the bench - and they won!

Ultimately neither matters, but I’m sure they’d rather be heading into the weekend with another win under their belt instead of a lacklustre defeat. It shouldn’t bother them too much though, and they’ve been in scintillating form in the Premier League, taking advantage of Chelsea’s slip-up at West Ham last weekend to steal top spot.

The Blues have won five on the trot, and seven of their last eight, and barely broke a sweat doing so. They’ve bagged 12 times in those five wins, conceding just three, and haven’t trailed for a single one of those 450 minutes.

Meanwhile, Wolves have had a weird old time of it in their first season under Bruno Lage. At the start of the year they were performing well and not getting the results, then they won four of five unbeaten games, and now they’re getting lucky that they aren’t punished for their poor performances.

They’ve conceded just once in their last three games, but have actually allowed 4.02xG to their opponents - including 2.42xG to Liverpool last time out. The Reds took 17 shots in that game, creating three big chances, and Wolves were lucky that they didn’t score more than once.

The hosts are as short as 1/9 to pick up another three points here, with Wolves out as long as 22/1 to spring an upset like they did in 2019.

The Portuguese full-back has been an elite performer this season, especially given he’s been operating somewhat out of position at left-back given City’s issues there.

Not only has he fulfilled his defensive duties fantastically, he’s also been a menace at the other end of the pitch - and his assist against Everton last month was simply sublime.

He’s managed a shot on target in seven of his last eight games, accumulating 11 in total during that run. He’s also taken four shots in his two appearances against Wolves - both while operating at left-back.

I did a mini-breakdown on my Twitter recently about how Laporte gets himself booked more often when City dominate the ball, often finding himself dealing with counter-attacks.

He’s picked up five bookings and a red in his 11 starts this season and there are few bigger threats in transition than Wolves’ Adama Traore.

It wouldn’t be a surprise to see Laporte caught out by his compatriot’s pace, especially given the aforementioned Cancelo will be pushed right up to contain his own compatriot Nelson Semedo.