Pep Guardiola will manage Fernandinho's fitness this season to ensure the veteran can still play a major role in Manchester City's season.
The 35-year-old was a surprise selection in midfield for the opening games of the 2020/21 campaign - sitting alongside Rodri with John Stones picked as Nathan Ake's partner in central defence - and was excellent in the 3-1 win.
City tried to bring in a successor to Fernandinho in the 2018 summer transfer window and thought they had succeeded with Rodri a year later. Aymeric Laporte's long-term injury and the unreliability of Stones and Nicolas Otamendi saw Fernandinho used regularly at centre-back last season, and it was expected that he would continue there given the remaining uncertainty in that position.
However, he played next to Rodri in his more familiar role at Wolves and showed why he is so highly rated at the Etihad and beyond. While he may drop into defence in future games, what is certain is that Guardiola expects to use the new club captain as much as his body can manage.
"He'll be really important," said the manager. "He's 35 years old and he cannot play every three days.
"Last year he struggled a lot to be fit for most of the season but he played really well with Rodri [against Wolves]. They were both good with and without the ball.
"This [Wolves] team is so good to play against, they have created an incredible team through the years and we suffered two defeats against them last season. It was an incredibly tough one here last season when we played 80 minutes with 10 men and lost at the end.
"That's why this was an incredible victory for us in the situation that we have. It's good but 111 points left. It's a good start though."
