Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
PEP HITS OUT: RUBEN’S NEVES WORTH £100M
Espirito Santo insists Wolves aren’t afraid of Pep’s City gunslingers
Man City v Wolves Etihad Stadium, KO 8pm
PEP GUARDIOLA claims Manchester
City will not be held to ransom by paying £100million to sign Wolves’ Ruben Neves (inset).
Neves is understood to feature on City’s list of targets to take some of the burden off Fernandinho in the Blues’
NUNO ESPIRITO SANTO has warned Pep Guardiola that Wolves are not scared of his Manchester City gunslingers.
Teams have been mown down in the crossfire as City have smashed in 18 goals in their last three games.
The brilliant 2-1 victory over leaders Liverpool was followed by the 7-0 FA Cup thumping of Rotherham and then the 9-0 mauling of Burton in the League Cup.
Wolves step into Guardiola’s Etihad lair tonight but say they won’t be ducking for cover.
Their record against the big clubs is extremely impressive. They’ve drawn with City, Arsenal and Manchester United and won at Chelsea, Tottenham and West Ham.
They go into the game on the back of a 2-1 FA Cup win over Liverpool and Molineux boss Nuno says: “There’s no need to be afraid. We are scared of nothing.
“Fear can make teams freeze and that’s what you don’t want. Belief in yourself and not being afraid doesn’t mean you don’t respect your opponent. But we don’t fear them because we feel we have the players and the ability to compete.”
Nuno adds: “Yes, I admire their talent. They are full of it.
“They are one of the best teams in the world but you can’t be frightened of anything.”
The Wolves boss admits he wished he could put his finger on why they do so well against the top clubs but lose to Huddersfield, Cardiff and Crystal Palace.
He added: “If I had the answer I would be a happy man. We approach games in the same way and try to play as we want.”
Striker Raul Jimenez believes that playing the champions is probably a good thing.
Jimenez said: “Our performance against the smaller teams has to be better now, we know that.
“If you see the matches we have against the bigger teams, maybe it’s a good thing to be playing City. It’s going to be a very difficult match,
“When you see them on the pitch it’s like they have had lots of years playing together.
“Every pass they do is with an idea to create danger for the other team. We go there with nothing to lose, we know how to do it.”
The Mexican star says he wouldn’t rule out newly-promoted Wolves making a real push for Europe.
He added: “Our goal at the start of the season was to stay in the Premier League. We are near to achieving that already, so we have to think we have to be in the top 10.
“We know we’re a good team who can be there so we are going to try.”