Bernardo right at home in away end
Moment of truth for Nuno
NUNO Espirito Santo says he will not lie to his Wolves players and tell them they are as good as Manchester City.
But the Molineux boss is still hatching a plan to try to derail Pep Guardiola’s champions.
Nuno says his pre-match build-up will focus on telling his newly-promoted side they can trouble the team who romped to the title last season.
Guardiola’s majestic team hit the 100 points mark, winning the trophy by 19 as Wolves were wrapping up the Championship title.
Nuno said: “I would be lying to my players if I told them that. They see things for themselves. Who doesn’t know about Manchester City?
“But what I will say to them is, ‘OK, you have something that can cause problems to them so let’s exploit it’.
“They are a fantastic team and have a fantastic manager but there’s no perfection in football. No one is perfect.”
The bookies don’t give Wolves a prayer of winning, some offering odds as high as 11-1.
And Nuno said: “I don’t think that’s disrespectful. They base those figures on logic and statistics but I don’t look at it like that.
“It’s a game and it starts 0-0 and we go from there.” BERNARDO SILVA could be forgiven if he thinks he is back in Portugal today.
There will be so many familiar faces in the Wolves team that Manchester City’s Portuguese midfielder will certainly feel at home on his first visit to Molineux.
Apart from their manager Nuno Espirito Santo, the Wolves squad includes Silva’s former Benfica team-mates Ivan Cavaleiro and Helder Costa, Portugal team-mates Ruben Neves, Rui Patricio and Joao Moutinho, plus former Monaco team-mate Ruben Vinagre.
But there will be no time for sentiment because Silva is only interested in maintaining City’s and his own sparkling early-season form. “We played really well against Chelsea in the Community Shield, we played a great match against Arsenal and obviously it’s always amazing to start our home game campaign with a win, and to do so winning 6-1 against Huddersfield was perfect,” said Silva. “While we know it’s only the start, we are happy with the way we have begun. Now we must continue against Wolves on Saturday, even though we know what a difficult game this will be – they have many quality players.”
Despite a successful first season at the Etihad following his £43million move from Monaco, Silva feels even more comfortable with a season in the Premier League under his belt.
“I feel a lot better and adjusted to the team,” he said.
“In your second season it’s normal to feel more at home and that definitely applies to me.
“We all know there is plenty of hard work ahead in the coming months, but it is great to start the way we have.”
Silva’s namesake and team-mate David Silva admits it will be difficult for City to improve on last season’s record-breaking campaign but they will strive to become the first team to win back-to-back titles since neighbours United in 2009. “It’s going to be very difficult to improve on what we did last season,” he said. “It happens once in a lifetime. We are going to try, knowing that every time is harder and harder. “But we are on the right path. Trying to win consecutive titles is a big challenge for us. We have a great team and we are going to try to repeat the title success. “Last season there were moments where we played the ideal football: lots of goals, high-ball possession and few chances conceded. That is very unusual in football nowadays.” Silva marked his 250th Premier League game for City last weekend with a goal in front of his baby son Mateo, who had to fight for his life after being born 11 weeks prematurely last December and was watching him for the first time.
“It was a very special day on Sunday,” he added. “Besides the milestone of it being my 250th game and the goal I scored, having my son there healthy at the Etihad Stadium is something that I will always remember.
“Reaching 250 Premier League games is very important. It’s my ninth season here. I have played lots of games, enjoyed lots of great moments too. This club is like a family to me.”
Silva hinted he will call it a day at the end of his contract in 2020, when he will be 35.
“I have two more years on my contract here,” he said. “I feel great here. I want to stay until the end of my contract and then, I’ll see how I feel physically and mentally to carry on.”
Silva has assisted more goals than any other player since arriving in England in 2010 and been tipped as a Premier League great, but he says he is more interested in team success and style of play than personal accolades.
“I’m not very interested in statistics, in goals. The only thing that matters to me is that the team plays well and we lift trophies at the end of the season,” hesaid.
“Like last season my goal is to be able to play beautiful football and to be able to fight for all of the trophies.”
Meanwhile, City boss Pep Guardiola says he trusts rookie goalkeepers Aro Muric and Danny Grimshaw to fill the void left by Claudio Bravo’s season-ending injury.
But he believes the Premier League should change their rules and allow clubs to sign goalkeepers if they suffer injuries after the transfer window has closed.