Wolves v Manchester City! | Jacob Steinberg

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<div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.24.1.1/75387?ns=guardian&pageName=Wolves+v+Manchester+City%21+%7C+Jacob+Steinberg%3AArticle%3A1734717&ch=Football&c3=GU.co.uk&c4=Premier+League+2011-12%2CWolverhampton+Wanderers+%28Football%29%2CManchester+City+%28Football%29%2CPremier+League+%28Football%29%2CFootball%2CSport&c5=Unclassified%2CPremier+League&c6=Jacob+Steinberg&c7=12-Apr-22&c8=1734717&c9=Article&c10=Minute+by+minute%2CMatch+report&c11=Football&c13=&c25=&c30=content&c42=Sport&h2=GU%2FSport%2FFootball%2FPremier+League+2011-12" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">• Turn on our auto-refresh tool for the latest updates<br />• Email <a href="mailto:jacob.steinberg.casual@guardian.co.uk">jacob.steinberg.casual@guardian.co.uk</a> for a chat<br />• <a href="www.guardian.co.uk/football/matches">Check out all the scores with our live service</a></p><!-- Block 1 --><p><strong>Afternoon.</strong> No life-affirming preamble today, no thoughtful introduction, no lame jokes. Ok, maybe some lame jokes. All you need to know is that the title race is back on. Manchester United have done an Arsenal and drawn 4-4 at home with Everton having been 4-2 up, and if Manchester City win at Wolves this afternoon, the gap at the top will be cut to three points, with the Manchester derby to come next Monday. It was eight points two weeks ago. The race was done. Dusted. We were all writing City's obituary, questioning what Roberto Mancini had to do to keep his job. Instead United have let them back in. Would you back Terry Connors' Wolves to make this afternoon even stranger? No, thought not.</p><p>Since the calamitous defeat at Arsenal, when City were a disunited rabble, they have scored 10 goals in two games, beating West Brom 4-0 and Norwich City 6-1. Five of those goals have gone to Carlos Tevez, and it is now impossible not to wonder where City might have been if he had been available all season. The game at Arsenal ended with Mario Balotelli pressing the self-destruct button again, but despite the recriminations that followed, it might turn out to be the best thing that has happened to City all season. Suddenly, without the Balotelli circus dragging them down, they look like a side with a dead weight lifted off their shoulders. At Norwich, they were smooth, classy and clinical – just as they were at the start of the season.</p><p>The equation is now quite simple for City: win their last four games and they win the league. The math(sJez) is similarly easy for Wolves. Lose this and they're down; unlike City, there isn't going to be a reprieve. Not for poor old Terry, a rabbit in the headlights. When Frasier and Niles Crane opened a restaurant it ended in typically farcical fashion, the brothers managing to lose the entire kitchen staff on opening night. No matter, they'd just do it themselves. The night ends with the fire sprinklers going off and a car crashing through a wall. Wolves weren't wrong to sack Mick McCarthy. They just should have had a replacement lined up.</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/premier-league-2011-12">Premier League 2011-12</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/wolves">Wolverhampton Wanderers</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/manchestercity">Manchester City</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/premierleague">Premier League</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/jacob-steinberg">Jacob Steinberg</a></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" />
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