Good evening and welcome to live coverage of Manchester City vs Brentford from Etihad Stadium, a home victory in which will elevate the champions to second place, a point ahead of Arsenal and a point behind Liverpool with their visit to Anfield to come on March 10.
It’s an oft-forgotten fact that on the last day of last season, when City had already guaranteed winning the title by at least five points, that Brentford became only the fourth side to complete a league double over a Guardiola City side in seven seasons (following Spurs in 2021-22, Man Utd in 2019-20 and Chelsea in 2016-17). And they also took the lead in the home fixture 15 days ago when Neal Maupay pounced and proceeded to needle Kyle Walker, figuratively twirling the ends of his moustache as if a villain from the golden era of silent movies. It has earned him some notoriety among the kind of writers who are blind to the subtle essence of gamesmanship and are tickled by the blatant but thoroughly bogus concept of ‘s—housery’, cackling on X about behaviour that in a saner age and occupation would earn the offender and their proselytisers a thick ear.
Anyhow, City are unbeaten at home since Ivan Toney’s 98th-minute winner in November 2022 and would hope to start the game in the manner they played in the second half during Saturday’s draw with Chelsea, building towards that irresistible tide that eventually produced an equaliser and would have, had Erling Haaland not been oddly off-kilter and ill-humoured, probably ensured a victory. Axel Disasi handled him well but unfortunately for Brentford Ethan Pinnock, who has battled him well in the past, is out until the end of March with an ankle injury and Nathan Collins never looks as assured positionally going man to man.
The visitors have lost seven of their 11 away games so far this season and are only five points clear of 18th after the injury ravages of the first half of their campaign. They have a tough three weeks ahead with visits to West Ham in what could be a make or break game for David Moyes, and Arsenal plus trips to the Gtech for Chelsea and Man Utd. The bookies have written them off as do most judges but if they have one thing in their favour tonight it’s that they are never usually an easy side to play, porous as Liverpool made them look on Saturday.