Guardiola makes three changes to City side for Brentford clash | OneFootball

Oscar Bobb, Matheus Nunes and Savinho have all been named in the City side to face Brentford this afternoon.

We're at the Gtech Community Stadium for a 16:30 (UK) kick-off.

Brentford v City | Match preview

Bobb, Nunes and Savinho have all been added to the team that drew with Monaco in midweek, with John Stones, Bernardo Silva and Jeremy Doku all moving to the bench.

Bobb makes his first start in the Premier League since the end of August while Nunes and Savinho - who signed a fresh City contract on Friday - both began last week's defeat of Burnley.

We've enjoyed a good record against Brentford in the last two campaigns, winning three and drawing one of our Premier League encounters.

However, with a new manager and several new signings over the summer, Pep and his players will be prepared for a different challenge this time around.

Teams

CITY XI: Donnarumma, Nunes, Dias (C), Gvardiol, O’Reilly, Rodrigo, Reijnders, Bobb, Foden, Savinho, Haaland

Subs: Trafford, Stones, Ake, Kovacic, Cherki, Doku, Nico, Bernardo, Lewis

BRENTFORD XI: Kelleher, Kayode, van den Berg, Collins (C), Ajer, Hickey, Henderson, Yarmoliuk, Damsgaard, Schade, Thiago

Subs: Valdimarsson, Henry, Pinnock, Jensen, Carvalho, Onyeka, Ouattara, Lewis-Potter, Janelt

WATCH: Foden is one of the best players we have in the final third, says Pep

Tactics

Gianluigi Donnarumma will stand tall in goal behind the blossoming relationship at centre-back between Ruben Dias and Josko Gvardiol.

Nico O'Reilly, one of our standout performers so far this season, will be at left-back with Matheus Nunes in the equivalent role on the right.

Rodri sits at the base of the midfield behind Phil Foden - who has scored all of City's previous six goals at Brentford - and Tijjani Reijnders.

Oscar Bobb and Savinho will star on the wings in support of Erling Haaland, who has 11 goals in eight games so far this term.

WATCH: Watch: City's last five strikes against Brentford

Pep approaching 250

A victory today could see the boss smash another long-standing Premier League record.

If we win, Guardiola will have led us to 250 Premier League wins in just 349 matches.

That's a whopping 74 more than the current fastest, Arsene Wenger - who took 423 matches to reach a quarter of a thousand.

It's yet another stat that really puts Guardiola domestic dominance over the last decade into stark focus, with all the other modern greats a long, long way back when it comes to matching his consistency.

Match stats

Since completing a Premier League double over Manchester City in 2022/23, Brentford are winless in their last four against us in the division (D1 L3).

We have only lost one of our four Premier League visits to Brentford (W2 D1), going down 1-0 on the final day of the 2022/23 season.

Brentford won 3-1 against Manchester United last time out. The only team to face both Manchester clubs in consecutive Premier League games and win them both are Tottenham Hotspur in January 1996 (4-1 v Man Utd, 1-0 v Man City).

Brentford have won four of their last six Premier League home games (D1 L1), scoring at least twice in five of those matches. This comes after an eight game winless run at Gtech Community Stadium, a run in which they failed to score on five occasions.

We are the only side to have spent more than half of our game time in a winning position in the Premier League this season (55.3%). We have spent over two hours in the lead in their last two away league games, but have failed to win either match (D1 L1).

City (18.4%) and Brentford (17.7%) have the two highest shot conversion rates in the Premier League this season. Indeed, the Bees have had the joint-fewest shots so far this term (51), but rank joint-sixth for goals scored (9).

Both Brentford and City lead the way in goals from fast breaks in the Premier League this season (3 each), with two of the Bees’ coming against Manchester United in their last match.

Brentford’s Igor Thiago has scored five goals from six shots on target in all competitions this season. Meanwhile, in the Premier League the Brazilian has the highest shot conversion rate of any player to have 10+ shots this term (40% - 4 goals from 10 shots).

Two of the three players to apply the most high-intensity pressures to opponents in the Premier League this season are Brentford’s Igor Thiago (354) and Yehor Yarmoliuk (340). Thiago ranks first for this metric in the opposition half (234), while Yarmoliuk is top in his own half of the pitch (244).