A header from John Stones deep into injury time earned Manchester City a 2-1 victory at Wolves that took Pep Guardiola's side top of the Premier League, for a couple of hours at least.
The match was heading for a frustrating draw for City, who saw title rivals Arsenal lose 2-0 at Bournemouth a day earlier.
Then City's 18th corner of a game they dominated for large parts, if without the usual cutting edge up front, was swing into the box by substitute Phil Foden with defender Stones leaping highest to head home.
City's wild celebrations were brought to a halt, though, when the assistant referee flagged for offside against Bernardo Silva but when referee Chris Kavanagh was asked by VAR to view the incident on the pitchside monitor, it was decided the Portuguese was not interfering with play and a goal given.
The delirious celebrations then kicked-in again with the referee blowing for full-time moments later much to the delight of City and anger of Wolves fans who felt their side had been denied what would have been a hard-fought point. Defeat leaves Gary O'Neil's rock-bottom of the table, having managed just one point from their opening eight matches.
For City, it is a sign of champions when they can grind out victories when they have not hit top gear in a match where top scorer Erling Haaland was a peripheral figure throughout. Their spell back on top of the table did not last long, though, with Liverpool leaping back ahead of City by a point after they beat Chelsea 2-1 later on Sunday.
“We have been trying super hard to improve our set pieces and make the most of them. Today was a new focus and attitude towards them,” said Stones, who also scored in injury time to earn City a point against Arsenal last month.
“Hopefully this is the start of many more. It is a vital part of the game at both ends of the pitch and really pleasing for me personally to get the winner after such a difficult game.
“I thought it had been chalked off. I tried to speak to the ref but he had a lot of people around him. For me it is the right call. Obviously I am going to be biased but I think it should stand.”
Unsurprisingly, Wolves manager O'Neil felt differently. “I knew Bernardo Silva was close to the goalkeeper,” he said. “Against West Ham we were given the reason of close proximity.
“Silva is less than a yard away and I think that same reasoning should be applied to this one, but it wasn't. I was calm about it, unfortunately there is nothing we can do.”
The start of the game had not gone as expected when Wolves took a shock seventh-minute lead, when Nelson Semedo found space down the right and sent over a perfect cross to leave Jorgen Strand Larsen with a tap in at the far post.
Wolves goalkeeper Jose Sa then made the first in a number of excellent stops to deny Silva as City went hunting for a quick equaliser.
But it was the home team that nearly doubled their lead when Semedo almost went from goal provider to scorer when he was sent clear through on goal only for Ederson to fly off his line and deflect the shot out for a corner.
City then once again took charge of the game piling the pressure on Wolves' goal and the only surprise was that it took until the 33rd minute until they levelled the scores.
Defender Josko Gvardiol picked up the ball on the edge of the area and was given time and space to curl home a beautiful strike that Sa managed to get a hand to but not enough to keep out of the net. It was the Croatian's sixth goal of 2024 making him the Premier League's top-scoring defender this year.
It was almost three not long after when Sa was again forced into action, producing another excellent save down to his right when he palmed Savinho's effort out for a corner.
City struggled to make the breakthrough in the second-half with their best chance falling to Ruben Dias who saw his low strike saved well, once again, by Sa.
Matheus Cunha went closest for Wolves – who managed only three attempts on goal all match – but could only send a shot just wide of the target in a rare home team attack.
And it looked like City were going to fall short of a deserved victory until Stones' dramatic late intervention. “We are not a team that win games right at the end but the performance there was outstanding,” said Guardiola.
