Wolves v Man City preview: Vitor Pereira faces stern test to start 2025/26 campaign

Manchester City and their riches come to town tomorrow evening and bring with them a familiar face in Rayan Ait-Nouri.

The Algerian was one of a handful of departures this summer as Wolves lost experience and quality from their ranks.

So far they have brought in three signings and while they are working on further additions, they will not arrive in time for the start of the campaign.

As a result, Pereira's squad is thin and vulnerable, while also coming off a pre-season in which they failed to win in six friendlies and lost four of them.

Wolves have taken a risk by waiting until later in the window to make significant additions and the players currently in situ must now attempt to put together a performance that is worthy of a result against City - which is easier said than done.

Wolves have a mountain to climb tomorrow, but in an evening game at Molineux, on an occasion when the club and fans will remember the late Diogo Jota, perhaps they will provide us with something a little bit special.

Toti Gomes - who is expected to be named the new club captain - insists the players are prepared and know the importance of having a good start to the season.

He said: “I definitely feel ready. We need to be ready and if you’re not ready, you need to be ready. I’m very excited for the new season because it’s always good and everybody has been waiting for the Premier League to start again.

“It’s really important to get off to a good start and get as many points you can at the beginning, so you can be more comfortable during the Premier League season. Of course, you need to think game by game, but we definitely need to try to make as many points as possible early on.

“It was kind of like a relief with the way that we finished last season, but we need to take the good things from last season and try to implement them this season, but also improve again. We have some more stuff that we need to improve, but it’s going to come with the games.”

Wolves also waited until later in the summer last year to complete their squad, as they faced a tough fixture list and then had a difficult start to the season.

Although fixtures this year are kinder, despite facing City tomorrow, the club are rolling the dice with performances and results in the coming weeks.

Toti, however, hopes the home factor and internal belief will get them through the game.

Toti added: “The first game, of course, is not going to be easy. We know we’re going to face Man City, and you always expect a tough team because they have many players with quality, and they add some more new signings every year.

“But we need to look to ourselves as well. We need to believe because we know that we have players with quality. We’ve beaten them before so why not do it again? We need to respect them but know that we have a good team to try to get some good points.

“We have the home factor and we’re going to have the fans and they’re going to motivate us and push us. As players, we also want to try and have a good start and get some points from them.”

Pereira's team selection should be relatively straightforward, if everyone is fit, but he has one decision to make in the front three.

Fer Lopez has played the majority of pre-season, but Marshall Munetsi may be called upon to help Jorgen Strand Larsen and also bring more energy as Wolves aim to hold City back.