Joao Gomes has picked up a booking in 4 of his last 6 games and is one yellow card away from another one-game suspension.

Given the Wanderers’ lack of real motivation, conspiracy theorists might see his odds to get booked as a decent spot of value. He also seems to pick up bookings whether he is the left side of a 3-man defence, left wing back or even deputising on the right.

With the array of potentially tricky players he’ll be up against and the fact he missed out on a yellow despite there being 11 in the last match between the sides, he’ll have an opportunity to add to his collection this Saturday.

Wolves have hit this line in three of their last five games and have committed more than ten fouls in ten of their last 11 games. Assuming they can get near enough to City to foul them, this looks an interesting play, given there might be a bit of needle to the game with events from their previous encounter.

City have drawn at least 10 fouls in eight of their last 10 games and the 13+ line has been covered in four of those games.

The Cityzens have averaged 8.12 corners per game this season across all competitions and Wolves have conceded an average of 6.53 in their games.

City games have featured over 9.5 in 62% of their fixtures and over 10.5 in 59% of encounters.

Given the lack of necessity for a Wanderers win and title race motivation for City, the flow of traffic will likely be in one direction. Incidentally, Man City had 6 corners in their previous encounter with Wolves, at Molineux.

City have conceded two or more shots on target in each of their last nine games.

Granted that they have faced teams such as Arsenal, Chelsea and Real Madrid in that run but Wolves have also managed at least two shots on target in their last 19 games.

Going to the Etihad in a relaxed mood with minimal pressure could unleash some of their creative players to play with ambition and nothing to lose.

Kevin De Bruyne has hit 11 shots on target in his last six games and managed 3 at home to Luton and Real Madrid.

In a game where Wolves will look to congest the space and give away a lot of free kicks, there’s a lot of potential for some long range efforts, free kicks and other heroics.

The visitors tend to concede a disproportionate amount of shots from opposing midfielders, with Bournemouth’s midfield having 4, Arsenal 5 and Forest 8 shots on target respectively in recent games.

Assuming that Wolves go with a back 3 and Gomes is at the heart of it, he stands a chance of landing this line if the gamestate goes in our favour.

He averages 49 passes per game away from home and even where the Wanderers have been dominated in possession, he’s managed to post respectable totals. Away to Spurs, Wolves had just 29% of the ball but he managed 40 passes.

If City take an early lead and go on to score a few, then there’ll certainly be lulls in the game where the visitors are not being pressed on the ball and some aimless slow passing at the back could rack up the pass count much quicker.