Adebayor repays City with another victory strike

Emmanuel Adebayor repaid another slice of his huge transfer fee as the Manchester City striker’s goal clinched a 1-0 victory over Wolverhampton on Saturday.

City boss Mark Hughes raised eyebrows when he paid 25 million pounds to sign Adebayor from Arsenal in the close-season, but the Togo international has made an impressive start with his new club.

He marked his debut with the opening goal in last weekend’s victory at Blackburn and smashed in his second of the campaign to kill off last season’s Championship winners at Eastlands.

Hughes is still keen to sign England defender Joleon Lescott from Everton to bolster his back-four, but City are certain to produce plenty of goals judging by the contributions of Adebayor, Robinho and Carlos Tevez, who made his first start following his switch from Manchester United.

Adebayor scored the only goal of the game in the 17th minute when Wayne Bridge’s cross was deflected by Jody Craddock into Tevez’s path.

The Argentina forward cushioned a perfect pass to Adebayor, who set his sights and lashed a perfect finish past Wayne Hennessey.

City kept up the pressure and Robinho had two decent chances, only to fire straight at Hennessey on both occasions.

Wolves had a rare opportunity when Matthew Jarvis gave central defensive duo Kolo Toure and Richard Dunne the slip, but Shay Given leapt superbly to claw away a shot that was heading for the top right corner.

Stephen Ireland should have increased City’s lead after half-time but the midfielder inexplicably pushed his shot wide after taking Robinho’s return pass.

It was City who always looked more likely to score again. But Adebayor’s first touch was too heavy, forcing him to go wide and fire into the side-netting, then Robinho drifted offside before tapping home Shaun Wright-Phillips’ low cross to the far post.

Mick McCarthy’s visitors mounted a late charge and Andrew Keogh was the central figure.

He was unlucky not to score when Toure touched Hennessey’s long punt downfield into his path.

His ferocious shot looked certain to find the back of the net but instead it came crashing back off the crossbar with Given well beaten.