Key events
âIt is an opportunity to go one point above Arsenal into second and be closer to Liverpool,â Man City manager Pep Guardiola says. âThe reality is since we lost to Aston Villa we didnât lose one game and the games we drew we were better.
âThe games we won, we were better too. I donât know if weâre going to win the Premier League. Weâre not satisfied with the result [against Chelsea] but itâs part of the game and you have to give credit to Chelsea for what they have done.
âWe have to continue to improve and focus and be in the title race.â
Tonightâs match was rescheduled as a result of Manchester Cityâs 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 Fodenâs hat-trick at the Gtech.
âWe conceded three goals [on 5 February against City] but I actually thought we defended well,â Brentford manager Thomas Frank says. âAny team facing City needs to defend well.â
He adds: âWe 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.â
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 Saturdayâs 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 tonightâs 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 Toneyâs 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 weâll 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 eveningâs match. Read all about it here.
And Jonathan Wilson analysed Manchester Cityâs 1-1 draw with Chelsea and came to the conclusion that it highlighted a glaring weakness in Pep Guardiolaâs team.
