Terrific Traore sinks shaky champs

Stones have stretched Guardiola’s defensive personnel and forced him to play midfielder Fernandinho at the back.

And the failure to replace former skipper Vincent Kompany is starting to bite hard.

Wolves set the tone for the afternoon early on, opening up the City defence after five minutes when Traore put Patrick Cutrone through on goal with only Ederson to beat.

But City received a let-off when the Italian forward scooped his shot horribly wide under pressure from the advancing keeper.

If that was a warning it was not heeded as the visitors were presented with two further chances to take the lead midway through the first half thanks to City’s sloppiness. An under-hit pass from Riyad Mahrez allowed Jimenez a clear sight of goal but he was thwarted by Fernandinho, who blocked his effort as well as the rebound from Cutrone.

Moments later Otamendi was the culprit.

The Argentine’s lame pass intercepted by Jimenez who had the run on Fernandinho, but the Brazilian did enough to deny the Mexico forward.

City created few clear-cut chances, to the growing frustration of their manager and fans not used to such laboured performances from their usually clinical team.

Wolves made the breakthrough in the 80th minute when Joao Cancelo lost the ball allowing Jimenez to break on the counter.

Jimenez skipped past Otamendi, who dived in without winning the ball, and squared for Traore to calmly slot the ball past Ederson.

The speed merchant then repeated the feat in the fourth minute of added time, in a virtual carbon copy of the opener.

Fernandinho was unable to keep pace with Traore, who showed a cool head once again to steer the ball beyond Ederson and leave Liverpool in pole position to claim a first league title for 30 years.