The State of Play
Manchester City, searching for a historic ‘double treble’ were held to a 1-1 draw by Chelsea at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday evening. That draw, in which Rodri scored late on to rescue a point for City, ended an 11-match winning streak across all competitions for the hosts. A victory on Tuesday evening at home to Brentford would close the gap to just one point on league leaders Liverpool.
Brentford have endured a very different season for them in the Premier League with quite a lot of goals at both ends of the pitch, not necessarily in line with their usually pragmatic style of football. The Bees’ 24 matches so far this season have consisted of 78 goals as they battle against being drawn down towards the bottom three. They have improved of late but a 4-1 defeat at home to Liverpool on Saturday made it three defeats in four matches.
Read our other football news stories here:
Sheffield United 0-5 Brighton: Blades routed after Holgate red
Luton captain Lockyer would ‘love’ to return to football
Wilder bemoans Holgate challenge as Sheffield United thrashed again
Team News
Manchester City are still awaiting confirmation on how long attacking midfielder Jack Grealish will be unavailable for after his injury against Copenhagen in the UEFA Champions League last week. Josko Gvardiol is the only other expected injury absentee for the champions.
Brentford will be without Ethan Pinnock for at least a month as Thomas Frank confirmed he would be injured until after the international break in late March. The Bees are also without key men such as Rico Henry, Bryan Mbeumo and Aaron Hickey.
Expected Line-ups
Manchester City: Ederson; Walker, Stones, Dias, Ake; Rodri; Foden, De Bruyne, Alvarez, Doku; Haaland
Brentford: Flekken; Collins, Ajer, Mee; Roerslev, Jensen, Norgaard, Janelt, Reguilon; Maupay, Toney
What they Said
In his post-match press conference on Saturday evening, Pep Guardiola said that City only played to their best level for ‘one half’ of that draw with Chelsea. “We played incredibly in the second half. The first half was not our levels but to compete against these teams you have to play just 90 minutes, not just one half.”
Thomas Frank, who had recently said he was flattered by links to Liverpool, described Liverpool as ‘the best team on the counter, also from set pieces.’ “That was something we normally do better. It’s the first goal we conceded on a counter from a set piece in the last two years.”
When and How to Watch
This match will be played at the Etihad Stadium at 19:30 on Tuesday February 19th but will not be televised live in the UK. It will therefore not be available to streamed legally in the UK either.
Prediction
Last season, Brentford did the double over Manchester City – beating them on the final day of the season at the Gtech Community Stadium as well as with a second-half stoppage-time winner from Ivan Toney before the break for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Brentford have simply got worse since then, severely hindered by injuries and availability issues. However, the visitors have improved of late and will believe they will be able to frustrate City for long periods. That said, though, City should still get over the line as they chase yet another Premier League title and a low-scoring home win is to be expected.
