Manchester City v Wolves

Wolves had eleven years of top-flight experience on City before the two clubs even shared a pitch.

Manchester City, freshly promoted to the First Division, faced Wolverhampton Wanderers in league competition for the first time during the 1899-1900 season. Wolves had been founding members of the Football League in 1888 and were well established in the top flight. City, who had only adopted their current name in 1894 after reforming from Ardwick AFC, were the newcomers. The fixture was set from the start: two clubs from the industrial heartlands of England, separated by roughly 80 miles of Midlands countryside.

City's maiden FA Cup, secured at Crystal Palace in 1904, confirmed their place among English football's silverware-hunters.

Manchester City claimed their first major trophy, beating Bolton Wanderers 1-0 in the 1904 FA Cup final at Crystal Palace. Both City and Wolves were now regulars in the First Division, and their league meetings had become a fixture of the English football calendar. Wolves themselves had won the FA Cup in 1893, so neither club was a stranger to silverware. The early 1900s established a pattern of competitive encounters that would endure for over a century.

Billy Wright earned his hundredth cap for England while Wolves were busy running the rest of the First Division ragged.

The 1950s belonged to Wolves. Under the management of Stan Cullis, they won the First Division title in 1953-54, then again in 1957-58 and 1958-59. Captained by Billy Wright, the first footballer to earn 100 international caps, Wolves were the dominant force in English football. Their famous floodlit friendlies against Honvéd and Spartak Moscow at Molineux helped inspire the creation of the European Cup. City, by contrast, were inconsistent during this period, though they did win the FA Cup in 1956. Meetings between the two sides during this era often saw Wolves as clear favourites.

Four trophies in three years; Mercer and Allison's City were the hungriest side in England.

The late 1960s and early 1970s marked a golden period for Manchester City under Joe Mercer and Malcolm Allison. City won the league in 1968, the FA Cup in 1969, and the League Cup and European Cup Winners' Cup in 1970. That 1970 League Cup final saw City beat West Brom 2-1 at Wembley, but it was their league encounters with Wolves during this era that carried real edge. Both clubs were competing at the top of the First Division, and fixtures between them drew large, passionate crowds.

Wolves fell from the First Division to the Fourth in just three seasons; City were not far behind in the misery stakes.

The 1980s were brutal for both clubs. Wolves suffered three consecutive relegations between 1984 and 1986, dropping from the First Division to the Fourth. City were relegated from the First Division in 1983 and spent much of the decade bouncing between divisions. For long stretches, the two sides were not even in the same league, and the fixture disappeared from the calendar entirely. It was a humbling period that older supporters of both clubs remember with a wince.

A Commonwealth Games arena quietly became the cradle of English football's greatest transformation.

Manchester City relocated from Maine Road to the City of Manchester Stadium, built for the 2002 Commonwealth Games and converted into a football ground. The move gave City a modern 48,000-seat home in east Manchester, a significant upgrade from their ageing former ground. The stadium, later renamed the Etihad Stadium, would become the stage for the most remarkable transformation in English football history. When City and Wolves met here in the early years, few could have predicted what was coming.

Sheikh Mansour's takeover in 2008 turned City from mid-table also-rans into Premier League champions within four years.

Sheikh Mansour's Abu Dhabi United Group completed their takeover of Manchester City in September 2008, and the club's trajectory changed overnight. Massive investment in players and infrastructure followed. Within four years, City won the Premier League title with that unforgettable Sergio Agüero goal against QPR in 2012. Wolves, meanwhile, had returned to the Premier League in 2003 but were relegated again in 2004 and spent years working their way back through the divisions.

Newly promoted Wolves beat City and knocked them out of the FA Cup in the same season. Some homecoming.

Under Nuno Espírito Santo and with the backing of Chinese conglomerate Fosun International, Wolves won the Championship in 2017-18 and returned to the Premier League. The fixture with City was back on the calendar for the first time in years, and Wolves proved they were no pushovers. In their first season back, Wolves beat City 2-0 at Molineux in the Premier League and also knocked them out of the FA Cup. Nuno's well-organised side, built around Portuguese talent like Rúben Neves and Raúl Jiménez, earned widespread respect.

Only the second English club to lift the treble; City did it in front of 53,000 at a campus that has redefined what a football ground can be.

Pep Guardiola's Manchester City won the Premier League, FA Cup, and Champions League in 2022-23, becoming only the second English club to complete the continental treble. They followed it up with an unprecedented fourth consecutive league title in 2023-24. Wolves, under various managers, have remained in the Premier League and continued to provide stern opposition. Fixtures at the Etihad between these two sides now carry the weight of over 120 years of shared history, played out in a stadium that holds over 53,000 and sits at the heart of one of the most impressive sporting campuses in world football.