Ten-Man City Defeat Wolves
Following last weekend’s opener against Manchester United, Claude Puel made four changes to his starting XI, as Jonny Evans made his maiden appearance for the Foxes and James Maddison and Ricardo Pereira were both handed home debuts.
Wolves started well as midfielder João Moutinho sent a long-range drive onto the crossbar with just three minutes on the clock, before Demarai Gray was denied by a fine sliding challenge from Ryan Bennett.
The visitors hit the woodwork for a second time on 21 minutes through striker Raúl Jiménez, whose effort hit Kasper Schmeichel’s right-hand post, while at the other end, Marc Albrighton and Wilfred Ndidi both had strikes blocked.
In the next phase of play, the Foxes took the lead, with Albrighton again involved. The winger delivered in from the right flank and his deflected cross was turned into the back of the net by Matt Doherty.
City’s opener provided them with a huge boost as they began to dominate towards the end of the first half. With a minute to play, Ricardo burst from his right-back position and offloaded the ball to Maddison, who curled into the bottom corner to mark his home debut with a goal.
After the break, Gray again went close as his low drive flew wide, while Schmeichel was on hand to deny striker Raúl Jiménez with his legs at the front post.
Following a challenge on Doherty, Jamie Vardy was shown a straight red card on 66 minutes and while Wolves threatened to get back into the game, City stood strong.
Midfielder Jonny struck the post and Rúben Neves forced Schmeichel into a good save, while Ben Chilwell saw his low shot turned away by Rui Patricio and Ndidi dragged wide in injury time.
Major moment
With Wolverhampton Wanderers on the attack in the opening stages, City needed to gain a foothold in the game, and with a slice of luck, took the lead through Matt Doherty’s own goal.
That proved to be the turning point in the first period and from then on, the Foxes looked much stronger. James Maddison bagged his first goal in Leicester colours to double his side’s advantage at a time when Wolves looked most threatening.
Who impressed?
Plenty of Foxes looked sharp against Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday, including Portugal international Ricardo Pereira.
He excelled at right-back, bombing forward to support City’s attackers, while also resuming his defensive duties when called upon.
Having hit the post in the build-up to Jamie Vardy’s goal against Manchester United last time out, he was again involved in a goal against Nuno Espírito Santo’s side.
He showed his pace to create space in the Wolves half before finding James Maddison, whose fine finish made it 2-0 in the first period.
Where do we stand?
City’s first victory of the 2018/19 season sees them move up to ninth in the Premier League table after two fixtures.
Coming up…
City are back on the road next weekend as they head to St. Mary’s Stadium to face Claude Puel’s former side Southampton on Saturday 25 August (3pm BST kick-off).