That’s all for tonight. Thanks as always for following along with us and be sure to check out Jamie Jackson’s match report from the Etihad.
Full time: Manchester City 1-0 Brentford
And there’s the whistle! It wasn’t the most pleasant work, but Manchester City have cashed in the game they’ve had in hand since December for a full three points, leapfrogging Arsenal and moving them within one point of Premier League leaders Liverpool.
City have completed the league double of Brentford with tonight’s win, returning the favour from a year ago.
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90 min+5: Brentford win a corner and Flekken is making his way up the park. Can the Bees salvage a point? And it’s Flekken who attempts a shot on goal … but he ends up catching Rodri’s leg with a half volley. Rodri is down in pain and Flakken is given a yellow card for his trouble.
90 min+1: Foden nearly gets on the score sheet again, leaving a gassed Brentford defender in his wake before dribbling around Ederson, but his shot rolls just left of the post.
90 min: The fourth official signals for six minutes of stoppage time.
88 min: Foden tests Flekken from close range but the Dutch keeper makes the save. A wave of substitutions follow. Saman Ghoddos and Mikkel Damsgaard are in for Brentford in place of Mads Roerslev and Frank Onyeka. And for City, Mateo Kovacic is on for Julian Alvarez.
84 min: Haaland evades his marker on the right side of the area but can’t generate enough power on a tightly angled shot. Flekken cleans it up easily.
82 min: Walker is shown a yellow card after a clattering challenge on Maupay with the ball running loose.
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80 min: Rodri picks out Walker as he sprints toward the goal line and the England right-back centers for to an oncoming Haaland, who heads it home it for an apparent second goal. But a second look reveals Walker was just offside.
77 min: A couple more changes for Brentford. Mathias Jensen and Keane Lewis-Potter are on for Vitaly Janelt and Sergio Reguilon.
73 min: Toney does well to fire in a serious attempt on goal so quickly after the City breakthrough, but his shot from about 25 yards floats just high of the crossbar.
GOAL! Manchester City 1-0 Brentford (Haaland 71)
And City have finally broken through after so many chances tonight! And who else? A blocked shot by Brentford sparks a blinding counter-attack. Haaland runs onto an Alvarez pass in full stride near the half-way line, sprints past a slipping Ajer and confidently fires past Flekken into the back of the net. It’s the Norwegian’s 17th Premier League goal and 22nd across all competitions.
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68 min: We’re back up and running again. And almost immediately Toney is shown a yellow for catching Ruben Dias’s face with his elbow while tracking a 50-50 ball. It’s occasion for another Brentford change as Neal Maupay comes on for Yoane Wissa.
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65 min: Ben Mee is down in the area after a collision with Haaland. As he’s checked on by the medical staff, Joe Pearson checks in via email:
When was the last time City failed to score in a match? The answer is December 6, against Villa. And the only other time was at Arsenal in October. Like Thanos, City scoring is inevitable. And it’s equally depressing
62 min: The frustration mounts for Haaland after he fails to wrangle an entry pass into the area. And here’s our first substitution of the night. Oscar Bobb first Premier League start is in the books after he comes off for Jeremy Doku.
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57 min: A big roar from the already loud home fans as Guardiola summons his substitutes to warm up.
54 min: After a very poor giveaway by City, Wissa wins a free kick from about 30 yards while surrounded by four blue shirts with nowhere to go. Not the best sequence for the champions, but Brentford can’t make them pay.
51 min: A nicely struck attempt from Rodri just outside the area, but it sails just wide right of the target.
49 min: City keep possession for more than three minutes in the final third before winning a corner. Can they convert? It’s played short to Bobb, who gives to Foden, but he’s dispossessed and Brentford are on a counter that develops quickly before fizzling out.
46 min: And we’re off in the second half. No changes for either side.
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Bobb, Alvarez and Ruben Dias all came agonisingly close to putting City ahead in the opening half, but Flekken has stood tall (say nothing of Ben Mee’s heart-stopping clearance on the goal line). Hard to imagine Kevin De Bruyne will be on the bench much longer.
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Half-time: Manchester City 0-0 Brentford
Saved by the bell? Perhaps. But Brentford go into half-time on level terms with Manchester City despite conceding 68.5% possession and shortfalls of 17-5 in shots, 6-2 in shots on target and 6-0 in corners won.
45+2 min: Stones is shown a yellow card for an overzealous challenge on Wissa. Mee is given another moments later for kicking the ball away.
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45 min: The fourth official has signaled for two minutes of added time.
43 min: A lunging Ederson turns away a header by an oddly unmarked Onyeka inside the City box.
40 min: A couple more in-swinging corners for City fail to offer a serious threat. Guardiola’s side have done everything right but haven’t been able break through. They have recorded the last 10 shots of the game since Brentford’s last attempt by Toney back in the 19th minute.
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36 min: Dias heads a shot low and hard on target but Flekken is able to keep it out with his legs. Moments later, Bobb fires a brilliant shot on gold but Mee does even better to divert it from his line with the keeper beaten. A sensational clearance from the former City youth player. The visitors are hanging on for dear life at this point. Can they make it to the half-time whistle unscathed?
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33 min: A brief, rare spell of possession for Brentford in the final third ends when an entry pass is lobbed in an easily tracked by Ederson. Within the blink of an eye, City are on the attack with Bernardo Silva coming thisclose to getting them on the board.
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28 min: Another Alvarez shot, this time across the area from just outside the line. But Flekken has his angles covered and it skids harmlessly wide of the post. City are on 66% possession with twice as many shots (eight) as their opponents (four).
26 min: Another City corner. It swings in before caroming off a thicket of players in the area to the foot of Alvarez, who leans back on his attempt and sends a shot high over the crossbar.
22 min: Flekken comfortably handles a corner. The visitors have settled in a bit after that frenzied opening and have even confronted City with moments of danger on the counter.
19 min: Brentford win a free kick from a dangerous spot near the edge of the area. Toney’s effort is just off target. A second deadly serious chance for the Bees after spending the first quarter-hour scrambling at the back.
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15 min: Brentford have a golden chance as Onyeka is released by Wissa behind the City high press with Walker closing in fast, but he’s unable to thread it past Ederson.
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13 min: Silva intercepts a pass near the half-way line. After some ominous interplay with Bobb and Rodri up the left side, Foden’s ball into Haaland misses the target and skids out for a Brentford throw-in.
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11 min: A long-awaited first chance for Brentford comes to pass when Reguilon has a go from distance, but it sails wide left of the post.
9 min: Silva serves a ball in the area to Haaland, whose header sails over the crossbar. It’s been one chance after another for City over the first nine minutes.
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6 min: City’s bright start continues. Flekken punches a clearance directly toward Foden, whose shot is blocked away. Brentford have struggled to get it out of their own half in the early stages.
3 min: City hold possession for the first couple of minutes before Haaland takes a shot from about 20 yards that’s easily corralled by Flekken. Interestingly enough, the Norwegian star has scored against all but one of the 21 teams he’s faced in his career to date. The one? Brentford.
Manchester City v Brentford is go ...
1 min: And we’re off. City get things rolling from left to right in blue shirts and white shorts, Brentford in their traditional away strips.
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The teams have emerged from the tunnel. Hey Jude is blaring from the stadium PA and the touchline pyrotechnics are in full roar. Not much longer now.
“It is an opportunity to go one point above Arsenal into second and be closer to Liverpool,” Man City manager Pep Guardiola says. “The reality is since we lost to Aston Villa we didn’t lose one game and the games we drew we were better.
“The games we won, we were better too. I don’t know if we’re going to win the Premier League. We’re not satisfied with the result [against Chelsea] but it’s part of the game and you have to give credit to Chelsea for what they have done.
“We have to continue to improve and focus and be in the title race.”
Tonight’s match was rescheduled as a result of Manchester City’s involvement in the Club World Cup. (Which they won.) That makes it the second meeting between these sides in 15 days. City had little trouble in the first of them, breezing past Brentford behind Phil Foden’s hat-trick at the Gtech.
“We conceded three goals [on 5 February against City] but I actually thought we defended well,” Brentford manager Thomas Frank says. “Any team facing City needs to defend well.”
He adds: “We need to do our best to learn our lessons from those three goals and avoid similar situations tonight. I have a good feeling we can keep them relatively quiet, but we know City can suddenly explode and have five men behind you.”
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The teams!
Pep Guardiola has made three tweaks to the City side that drew with Chelsea on Saturday, inserting John Stones, Bernardo Silva and Oscar Bobb in place of Kevin De Bruyne, Nathan Ake and Jeremy Doku. Thomas Frank also makes three change to his team following Saturday’s defeat to Liverpool: Yoane Wissa, Mathias Jorgensen and Frank Onyeka are in, while Neal Maupay, Nathan Collins and Mathias Jensen drop to the bench.
Manchester City
XI: Ederson, Walker, Dias, Stones, Akanji, Rodri, Bobb, Foden, Alvarez, Bernardo Silva, Haaland
Subs: Ortega, Carson, Ake, Kovacic, Doku, De Bruyne, Gomez, Nunes, Lewis
Brentford
XI: Flekken, Onyeka, Ajer, Mee, Roerslev, Jorgensen, Norgaard, Janelt, Reguilon, Toney, Wissa
Subs: Strakosha, Maupay, Jensen, Ghoddos, Collins, Lewis-Potter, Damsgaard, Baptiste, Yarmoliuk
Hello and welcome the Etihad for tonight’s Premier League meeting between Manchester City and Brentford. After dropping points at home against Chelsea on Saturday, the hosts are currently third in the table at 53 points behind Liverpool (57) and Arsenal (55) with a game in hand. A win today would go a long way toward keeping pressure on the leaders.
The Bees, who are 14th with 25 points, are coming off a 4-1 defeat to Liverpool at home where Ivan Toney’s lone goal was canceled out by Darwin Núñez, Alexis Mac Allister, Cody Gakpo and Mo Salah on his return from injury.
The team sheets will be with us any moment and we’ll have them over to you directly.
Preamble
Good evening. Welcome to coverage of the rescheduled Premier League match at the Etihad Stadium, where the defending champions will hope to recover from their minor stumble against Chelsea at the weekend to move above Arsenal to within one point of leaders Liverpool, who host Luton tomorrow. Bryan will be here with full coverage shortly but in the meantime Pep Guardiola felt like he had some apologising to do before this evening’s match. Read all about it here.
And Jonathan Wilson analysed Manchester City’s 1-1 draw with Chelsea and came to the conclusion that it highlighted a glaring weakness in Pep Guardiola’s team.
