On the whole, Pep Guardiola was pleased with what he saw from his Manchester City side against Wolves. He declared that the performance was largely as good as the Blues played against Tottenham four days earlier, yet the mood was far cheerier.
After the Spurs game, Guardiola had launched a series of criticisms against all areas of the club, calling City a 'happy flowers' team and declaring that the hunger and fire were not there in his side after an inconsistent run of form. He wanted the complacency that had set in to disappear, and for everyone to demand more of this side who have dominated the Premier League in the last five years but are two steps behind Arsenal this year.
Fast forward four days and Guardiola was in a far better mood after seeing City beat Wolves 3-0 at the Etihad. He said he overall attitude was much better, but he would judge his side on more than one game and challenged them with showing those improvements over a longer period.
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So what exactly pleased Guardiola, and what can we take from his post-Wolves comments when they are compared to his rant after the Spurs game?
For a start, Guardiola had mentioned Erling Haaland, scorer of 28 goals after the Spurs win, as maybe not being in tune with his teammates as much as the manager would like. His Wolves hat-trick suggests any talk of City being a worse side with Haaland in it is nonsense, and Guardiola addressed that theory on Sunday.
This time, Guardiola was back to his stance that other players must be better in giving Haaland the service he needs, rather than expecting him to come deep or take players on himself. Haaland did show some encouraging link-up play against Wolves, with Guardiola praising the midfield and attack as a whole for recognising the space that was available and finding Haaland with better balls.
A fourth hat-trick in just 19 Premier League appearances, his 25 goals of the season in the league and 31st in all competitions, means that Haaland is over his mini three-game drought. Guardiola added: "He is not a player to be dropped," and referenced the overall numbers of his side that match previous title-winning campaigns. It seems any concerns over Haaland were only short-term.
That brings us on to Kevin De Bruyne, who was dropped entirely vs Spurs and Guardiola said he saw no better options on the bench that night to improve things. De Bruyne returned to the starting line-up, bent in a lovely assist for Haaland's first, and freed Ilkay Gundogan into the box to win the important penalty for City's second.
Guardiola hinted at De Bruyne 'struggling' to be able to influence games when he wants more players in the box - yet his 12th league assist of the season showed he's still City's most creative player. If De Bruyne can accept being rotated for certain games where different qualities are needed, then he showed against Wolves he's ready to come back firing when he's recalled.
Another eye-catching Guardiola comment on Thursday was that 'we cannot play good without Nathan [Ake].' So it was a surprise to see Ake benched on Sunday for Aymeric Laporte, who slotted in at left-back. However, that experiment lasted just 45 minutes, with Ake on at the break to 'solidify' City's defence and see out the clean sheet.
Ake is undoubtedly City's best left-back at the moment, and Guardiola's experiment underlined that. For Joao Cancelo and Kyle Walker to be left on the bench again, shows that the senior pair who began the season as first choice in both full-back positions, are arguably now third choice on each side. Ake, though, only supported his manager's praise from the previous game.
As a whole, City responded too. John Stones insisted he didn't see Guardiola's comments to the media, but had heard loud and clear what the manager said personally to the squad. One of Guardiola's examples of a lack of fire vs Spurs was that the team didn't defend Rico Lewis under heavy treatment from the opposition, yet Tottenham players were frequently surrounding the referee.
It was an easy way to show the players were listening then, to do exactly that, and David Coote was extremely familiar with the City players by full time as they regularly raced over to plead their cases. It didn't give City a stonewall penalty for a foul on Jack Grealish in the first half, but there was no doubt that their second half penalty would be given, and Guardiola will have been pleased to see that note had been taken on board.
Likewise, the noise from the stands notably increased after Guardiola called for the fans to demand more. He clarified after the Wolves win that he's happy for fans to boo and criticise rather than to stay silent.
"When we're here and play not good, I want my fans to demand us and ask the maximum," he said. "If they are not happy I prefer to boo than don't say anything. When they are with this energy the players feel it. Everyone feels it and together we are stronger."
While Guardiola is keen for his demands to be judged after more than just one game, City did feel stronger for his outburst after Tottenham. For some of his issues raised, he saw what kind of response he could expect.
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