Manchester City 2-0 Brentford: Kevin de Bruyne and Riyad Mahrez score

Manchester City 2-0 Brentford: Kevin De Bruyne and Riyad Mahrez are both on target for Pep Guardiola’s side as the Premier League champions move 12 points clear of title rivals Liverpool

  • Manchester City beat Brentford 2-0 at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday night
  • Riyad Mahrez scored from the penalty spot after Raheem Sterling was fouled
  • Kevin de Bruyne doubled City’s lead after an error from Brentford’s David Raya 

 There were spells of this when Manchester City seemed in a haze. A bit passive. It is not often that can be levelled at them.

Memories of this victory should fade quickly but another victory it was and while they continue to rack those up, the title is only heading in one direction. The champagne, or more specifically the vodka Red Bulls, are on ice.

The draw at Southampton before the break gave a chink of light to the chasers but that was not to become any wider for the time being.

Riyad Mahrez opened the scoring from the spot after Raheem Sterling was fouled

City have not dropped points in consecutive matches since December 2020. Fifty games now. They’ll drink to that around here. Although perhaps not in public anytime soon.

By the 69th minute, Kevin De Bruyne had finished this off. Jack Grealish had just entered the pitch, serenaded from the stands about having a few jars, and was part of the pressing contingent that forced Brentford into ceding possession and led to De Bruyne sweeping home. With it, City went 12 points clear of Liverpool on a night that could have all been about Grealish.

When the topic of that punter’s intrepid camerawork outside Albert’s Schloss – and whether City’s small group were turned away or decided to wander off from the crowded bar – reared its head, Guardiola had been ready. As he does, the quipping was sharp and somewhat self-deprecating.

He flippantly moaned that they had not invited him for what he then described as a ‘sober dinner’. Nailing both points: this was all a bit silly and none of them – Grealish, Kyle Walker and Riyad Mahrez – had done anything wrong anyway.

Kevin de Bruyne scored his seventh league goal of the season to double City’s lead

Case closed in Guardiola’s eyes, although players having a few scoops the night before a day off is hardly worthy of forensics regardless. The bigger crime for locals might actually have been that City’s threesome, also joined by kit man Ally Marland, shunned the trendier part of town barely a 10-minute walk away.

Yet when Grealish is one of those filmed, to the backdrop of previous incidents – one of which occurred only a matter of weeks ago at the same establishment – then it takes on additional meaning for some. Last night, the easy thing for Guardiola would have been to start him after publicly backing him but then Guardiola never really does things the easy way and, more pertinently, is not a man who cares what we may think.

And, given how often he rotates City’s attacking armoury, no amount of observers suggesting that the British record signing had been dropped for the second time in two months could truly convince that he was indeed on the naughty step again.

Pep Guardiola’s Man City side are now 12 points clear at the top of the Premier League table

What was clear for much of the opening exchanges was that City could really have done with Grealish. His performances have been steadily improving – not many players in the division complete as many ‘key passes’ during matches – and this was a night when the paper clip required manipulating drastically to penetrate Brentford’s lock.

City played two inverted wingers, one inverted full back and a right back in John Stones unfamiliar with the position. So they attacked narrow against opposition who narrowed the pitch even further. Patience was required, and was in wearing thin, when they broke through five minutes before the break.

Raheem Sterling had beavered on the left, causing Mads Roerslev one problem too many when he charged for the byline, the defender’s lunge clipping his foot. Riyad Mahrez sent David Raya the wrong way, the seventh consecutive club game in which he has found the net.

Brentford, with five at the back, had come to frustrate but picking Saman Ghoddos and Sergi Canos through the middle offered them the chance to go back to front with pace. The club’s analysts, sat in the Colin Bell Stand, thumped their desks after Canos crossed straight into Ederson’s arms when the hosts were outnumbered on the break. Here, those moments need converting.

Jack Grealish made a notable difference after coming on during the second half of the game

The same can be said of Rico Henry’s opportunity moments after Mahrez’s penalty. Stones lost his footing and Henry pounced, set clear via a one-two, only for Ederson to thwart him.

City had seen Phil Foden, Aymeric Laporte, Sterling and Joao Cancelo all miss the target from presentable positions. The latter’s came after Raya had clawed away from Sterling, who had been ready to tap in Mahrez’s cross.

Raya’s comeback from injury, this being his first league appearance since October, should serve as a fillip for Thomas Frank, whose side are now eye-balling a relegation scrap. Like so many promoted teams before them, a run of winter defeats has sucked them in. Cancelo drew them all to the ball, jinking in and out, before firing straight at Raya.

The second arrived eventually, with Raya gifting the ball away to Sterling – redeeming himself by thwarting the forward – only for De Bruyne to seal it.




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