The debrief - Man City 0 Wolves 2

After overseeing victories against Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Spurs and Arsenal last term, now the master of Molineux has added the reigning league champions to the list. A perfect gameplan, the perfect execution and the perfect away day for the 3,000 gold and black faithful.

Tops the lot?

Wolves have enjoyed some special moments since Nuno Espirito Santo walked through the door.

Hopefully there will be many more to follow, but does yesterday’s performance and result top the lot so far?

The Etihad is not an easy place to visit. And it’s even more difficult to keep a clean sheet with City having scored in each of their last 44 home Premier League games prior to yesterday.

City’s previous Premier League visitors, Watford, had eight goals smashed past them and while Pep might have a few problems at the back, they aren’t too bad at the other end.

But yesterday they came up against a superbly well-drilled unit that stood firm, frustrated them and then capped it all with two fine break-away goals.

Bristol City, Middlesbrough and Cardiff – all away – were games full of drama that Wolves came out on the right side of as they powered to the Championship title. The win at Spurs last season was stunning, the FA cup victory against Manchester United had Molineux bouncing like it hadn’t bounced for years.

Fast forward to this term and the trips to Torino and Besiktas immediately jump out.

But this was the champions of England, on their own patch. It has to be close to being No1.

And just for the record, the last time Wolves beat the reigning title holders away from home was in 1984, when Steve Mardenborough struck in a 1-0 win at Liverpool.

Wing wonders

Ok, who saw the team-sheet prior to kick-off and was a touch puzzled by the decision to play Adam Traore and Ruben Vinagre in the wing-back roles?

It didn’t look great on paper, the prospect of Traore, a converted winger, and Vinagre, who has struggled for form this season, having to shackle Raheem Sterling and Riyad Mahrez.

Well, we should know better than to doubt Nuno.

There were a few iffy moments early on, but credit to the fleet-footed Wanderers.

They stuck to their task and helped build a black wall that continually repelled what City could throw at them.

And then when the pressure was building, Nuno introduced the experience of Jonny Castro Otto and Matt Doherty. The changes saw Vinagre take a well-earned breather while Traore joined Raul Jimenez up front with Patrick Cutrone making way.

And we all know what happened next as Traore produced two clinical finishes to seal a memorable victory, If Carlsberg did gameplans.....

Traore transformation

And while we are on the subject of Traore, what a transformation we are seeing.

A fair percentage of Wolves fans wouldn’t have been overly disappointed had the winger hot-footed it out of the door in the summer.

Frustrating, inconsistent, not quite up to it at Premier League level, that was consensus among some fans.

But Nuno saw something when he splashed out 18million quid for him and we are all seeing it now. This was easily Traore’s finest hour in gold and black, and probably a career that started at Barcelona before pit-stops at Villa and Middlesbrough.

The signs of progress have been there for all to see this season. He has continually tormented defenders whether deployed at wing-back or as a winger, and he has chipped in with a fair few assists.

Yesterday he chipped in with goals – after going 45 games without netting one – and really announced himself on the Premier League scene. One of Nuno’s great strengths is his work on the training ground and how he improves players.

That has been the case with Traore. He is getting better, week in week out. The pace will always cause problems, now he is starting to add the end product.

If he continues on this path, Wolves will have a serious, serious player on their hands. Premier League watch out.

Boly is a beast

The hero of Istanbul was at his bullish best again yesterday.

Time and time again it was Willy Boly who headed clear, intercepted a pass, won a tackle or put himself in the right place at the right time to end a City threat.

And this came at a ground where he saw red during the first half last season, and with his walk down the tunnel went Wolves’ hopes of getting anything out of that game.

On this occasion, Boly’s contribution was talked about for all the right reasons.

He was good against Besiktas while on Europa League duty, but he was arguably even better at the Etihad.

Boly has everything you would want from a central defender, and a touch more class on the ball than most.

There weren’t too many opportunities to drop a shoulder and swagger out of defence with the ball yesterday, this was an occasion for total concentration and discipline.

Boly ticked both those boxes and a few more. He was immense and on this sort of showing he is one of the best central defenders in the top flight. What a bargain he is proving to be.

Time for a rest, Raul

A little R&R now awaits for a few Wolves players.

The latest round of international fixtures will see numerous Molineux men head off for a spot of duty with their national teams, but it will also provide one or two with the chance to recharge their batteries. And no one can be more deserving of a rest than Raul Jimenez.

The Mexican’s stunning debut season saw him become the main man up front for Wolves, and as a result he was simply undroppable.

But alongside banging in the goals that helped fire Wolves into Europe, he was also the star turn for his country.

While the end of last season saw most players head for the beach, Jimenez was back in the thick of the action as he led Mexico to Gold Cup glory.

He didn’t figure in the summer’s Asia Trophy success, but it wasn’t long before he was pulling on a gold shirt again, 58 minutes into the opening Europa League qualifier against Crusaders to be exact.

You wouldn’t have guessed it yesterday as he put in the latest in a long line of unselfish, hard-running performances – that included two perfectly executed assists for Traore’s goals – but he needs to get Straight Outta Compton.

Hopefully, Nuno will pack him off for a few days to rest up, recharge and come back all guns blazing.