City Watch: Blues start with a bang

The Premier League is back! After a few months of writing about the Club World Cup, transfer rumours and the potential our new signings have, there is something more fruitful to talk about in these columns for the next nine months.

Before our curtain raiser began, Wolves laid on a tribute to their old player, Diogo Jota, who passed away along with his brother earlier on in the summer. It was a classy and emotional gesture, supported by the City fans as well. 

They hung a tifo before kick off with a message that displayed ‘We’ll remember you when you walk in fields of gold.’ 

Their deaths were untimely and heartbreaking, but it was good to part of the tributes to say farewell to Diogo and Andre.

Moving onto the football, City started the new season perfectly with a win against Wolves on the weekend. I was at Molineux for the season opener, a stadium I’m familiar with as I’ve watched the Blues win and lose there, so I didn’t really know what to expect. 

There was a sense of anticipation amongst the fans, as they also didn’t know what they were going to be watching, a repeat of last season’s disaster or the second reckoning of Pep.

I’m glad to report that the opening game couldn’t have gone better, with the Blues impressively beating Wolves 4-0, and some fantastic individual and team performances to speak about.

The first 30 minutes of the game, City seemed a little nervous, with Wolves showing that they won’t lack goals this season, catching out our defence on the counter multiple times. Wolves scored midway through the first half only for it to be ruled out for offside, but it fired a warning shot and woke up the players a little.

Erling Haaland seemed to pick up right where he left off, scoring City’s opening goal just past the half an hour mark, before new boy Tijjani Reijnders doubled the scoreline just three minutes later.

Two up at half time, I was confident going into the second half, with Haaland himself doubling his goal tally for the season before another debutant, Rayan Cherki, came off the bench to finish the game off with a brilliant strike from outside the box, securing a 4-0 win for the Blues and putting us top of the League.

I skimmed through the match review a little, but only because I want to have enough time to talk about some individual performances that have sent shockwaves through the League. We’ll start with the best of the lot, Tijjani Reijnders. Just a reminder, the Dutch midfielder joined City early on in the window from AC Milan for a reported £46 million.

Based on his performance, it looks like he’s going to be worth every penny. For the first goal, he wasn’t directly involved with a goal or assist, but it was him who made the goal possible. 

He shimmied past three Wolves players with an Andres Iniesta style skill before scooping the ball over the defence, allowing Rico Lewis to put a magnificent ball across for Haaland who was always going to be in the right position for a tap in.

His goal just a few minutes later was even more impressive, running over 70 yards to create the space on the left and finishing beautifully in the bottom right corner. He also assisted Haaland’s second goal, again, running over 70 yards from his own half to create space with Oscar Bobb, and cutting it back for Haaland to power home a great finish.

He was awarded Man of the Match, and honestly, I’m not at all surprised, it’s probably one of the most complete debuts I’ve ever seen. His ability to keep the ball close to his feet makes it so difficult for defenders to tackle him, and his willingness to run from box to box is something we really missed last season.

It feels like he’s the greatest hits of Yaya Toure, Bernardo Silva and Ilkay Gundogan rolled into one, I’m really excited to see what the 27 year old can achieve in a City shirt. 

I waxed lyrical last season about the absence of Rodri and the impact it had on the team not just in our style of play, but psychologically. Rodri wasn’t even playing on the weekend due to a setback in his injury, but honestly, it felt like he was.

Tijjani bossed the midfield, and the best part is, he can do a bit of everything. He can track back, contribute in defence, but once we pick the ball back up, he’s always the first to make a run and create some space. This won’t be the last time I talk about how good this guy is.

I fear I’ve used any space I had talking about Reijnders, however, there is one other player I’d like to highlight from the win at Wolves, Oscar Bobb.

A lot of City fans were disappointed last season when he got injured, as it felt like it was going to be a breakthrough year for him. Then there was the worry about whether the injury would affect him coming back.

I’m happy to say, it doesn’t look like it’s going to! Oscar possesses a similar trait to Reijnders, in that he dribbles with the ball so close to his feet, making it so difficult for defenders to tackle him. He caused the Wolves defence a nightmare, and I’m sure he’s going to do the same to a lot of teams this season.