Laporte saves City blushes
Wolverhampton, Aug. 25: Aymeric Laporte rescued a draw for Manchester City against newly promoted Wolves on Saturday as Pep Guardiola’s team dropped their first points of the season.
The reigning champions were forced to dig deep to rescue a point on a day of mild controversy at Molineux, with Laporte’s header in the 69th minute cancelling out Willy Boly’s opener 12 minutes earlier that went in off his arm.
It appeared Wolves might inflict a first league defeat on the Premier League champions since City’s derby defeat to Manchester United in April.
The home side exposed some chinks in City’s armour that will offer a glimmer of encouragement to the rest of the Premier League.
Nuno Espirito Santo’s men weathered intense City pressure before claiming a surprise lead.
And even though City shared the points thanks to an emphatic header by Laporte, the game threw up rare questions for Guardiola to answer.
Having stormed to the Premier League title last season and started the new campaign in impressive style, life has been plain sailing for much of the past 18 months for Guardiola.
In the absence of the injured Kevin De Bruyne, however, the composure his side so often display in attacking areas was sometimes missing at Molineux, although they still created enough chances to see off Wolves comfortably.
Of more concern, perhaps, was the lack of solidity in defence, where Vincent Kompany and Laporte at its heart looked far from assured as a partnership.
With John Stones left on the substitutes’ bench, there were signs that Kompany’s lack of pace and Laporte’s lack of experience could be exposed, although the young Frenchman looked like a seasoned Premier League campaigner when he thundered home the header to give his side a point.
EMERY GETS FIRST WIN Arsenal won for the first time under new manager Unai Emery as they came from behind to clinch a 3- 1 victory against West Ham.
Emery’s side had lost the first two games of the post- Arsene Wenger era against Man City and Chelsea in the club’s worst start to a Premier League campaign since 1992.
They were on the verge of more unwanted history after Marko Arnautovic gave West Ham a surprise lead at the Emirates Stadium.
A defeat would have made this the first Arsenal side to lose their opening three fixtures for 54 years.