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City win seven goal thriller

Manchester - Manchester City went top of the Premier League on Saturday after Carlos Tevez's double, plus goals from brothers Kolo and Yaya Toure, helped them overcome Wolves in a 4-3 goalfest.

The home side were dreadful in the opening stages and deservedly went 1-0 down before coming back to assert their authority and although Wolves threatened a late comeback, they could not do enough to prevent City moving above neighbours Manchester United in the table.

City's new 27-million-pound signing Edin Dzeko went straight into the starting line-up despite lacking peak match fitness following his move from German side Wolfsburg.

With Mario Balotelli out for a month with a knee injury, City manager Roberto Mancini did not hesitate to test Dzeko.

Wolves had already beaten City once this season and although they began the game fourth from bottom with the home side just two points off the Premier League summit, Mancini had warned his side about complacency.

Mancini had good cause to warn his men as the visitors started as the brighter side and took the lead after 12 minutes courtesy of some disastrous City defending.

A Matt Jarvis cross got City into terrible trouble at the back as Kolo Toure kicked his clearance directly at team-mate Vincent Kompany who deflected the ball into the path of Nenad Milijas who could not miss from three yards out.

Soon after, Stephen Hunt and Steven Fletcher combined to give Jarvis a glorious chance to make it 2-0 and he surely would have done if Aleksandar Kolarov had not produced a wonderful diving block.

City looked chaotic at the back and rarely managed to link enough passes together to really concern Wolves in the opening 30 minutes and Dzeko barely saw the ball as City's fans grew increasingly restless.

City did not force a save out of Wayne Hennessey until the 31st minute when Adam Johnson fired a low effort which the Wolves keeper saved with his feet.

But the scale of City's ineptitude was startling as they continued to play like virtual strangers, kicking the ball aimlessly and consistently failing to put the away side under any pressure.

However, they did equalise just before the break when Kompany's flick-on found Kolo Toure at the backpost and he fired a shot through a plethora of Wolves' defenders which deflected off David Jones into the back of the net.

And within 10 minutes of the restart, City looked to have made the game safe.

Firstly, Tevez gave City the lead with a sublime finish to grab his 14th goal of the season as he wriggled past Christopher Berra, Stephen Hunt and Richard Stearman to slide the ball home after 49 minutes.

And then five minutes later, Yaya Toure ran onto the end of a Dzeko pass to finish a move he had started as he comfortably beat Hennessey to make it 3-1 before a fine Tevez header added ever more gloss to the scoreline.

Wolves were not entirely finished though as Kevin Doyle scored a penalty after Joleon Lescott had bundled him to the ground and Ronald Zubar's late header made for a frantic finish but City held on to record their seventh home win of the season.

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