Match Preview: Brentford v Manchester City | OneFootball

Brentford host reigning Premier League champions Manchester City on Tuesday evening at Gtech Community Stadium (7.30pm kick-off GMT).

The Bees will be looking to build on their superb 5-0 win at Southampton against a City side who currently sit sixth in the table.

Analysis, team news, match officials and more. Here's everything you need to know ahead of the fixture.

Pre-match analysis

Richard Cole, Playmaker Stats: Home advantage could be key

Manchester City are back to winning ways in their last three games but they won't be keen on facing Brentford – a team who has always given them a real battle.

The two sides had very different FA Cup weekends with the Citizens putting League Two Salford City to the sword in an 8-0 win while Brentford lost out to Championship Plymouth Argyle.

It's hard to read too much into a heavily-rotated City demolishing the Ammies. It's probably better to look at the two previous Premier League games where Pep Guardiola's team won away at Leicester City before defeating West Ham United 4-1 at the Etihad Stadium.

Neither of those two performances were the vintage you expect from the defending champions, particularly against two teams struggling in the league. Indeed, City won 2-0 over the Foxes but the xG showed it was a far closer fixture with Leicester's xG of 1.64 very narrowly behind the 1.67 of City.

Of course, the Bees enjoyed doing the double over City in the 2022/23 season and have taken the lead in two of their last three games since then. Neal Maupay scored in the 21st minute at the Gtech back in February 2024 before Phil Foden inspired a comeback.

Earlier this season, Yoane Wissa scored a lightning-fast goal for Brentford at the Etihad that required an Erling Haaland brace to recover from.

And while Haaland has been among the Premier League goals in typical fashion this season with 16, he trails behind Mohamed Salah (18) and has to look over his shoulder at the in-form Bryan Mbeumo (13).

Savinho is another player that Thomas Frank's side will have to worry about. The Brazilian has been one of City's best this season and is the team's top assist maker in the league with five, which ranks him joint-fifth in the overall rankings, behind joint-third place Mikkel Damsgaard (seven assists).

As well as his assists and solitary league goal this season, Savinho is one of just four players to have won more than one penalty (two alongside Ipswich's Liam Delap and Southampton's Tyler Dibling but way behind Bournemouth's Evanilson on five).

Savinho also ranks second just behind team-mate Kevin De Bruyne for shot-creating actions per 90 minutes with 6.45 per 90 compared to the Belgian's 6.66. However, both players trail Mbeumo when it comes to total shot-creating actions (the Brentford man has 76 compared to Savinho's 71 and De Bruyne's 61).

Home advantage could well be the key on Tuesday night, and Brentford will be keen to reassert themselves on their own patch. The Bees' record at home is second behind only top-of-the-league Liverpool this season, while City have found it difficult on the road in recent months.

Indeed, that close victory over Leicester was the only Premier League game City have won on the road since the start of November with a total away record in that time of one win, one draw, and four defeats.

That's four away points in total and only four teams have fewer since November: Everton, Southampton, Leicester, and Aston Villa (all winless away from home in that period).

City may feel back on track with three wins on the bounce, but Brentford are a tough nut to crack at Gtech Community Stadium – and the Bees will hope to respond to their cup exit by trampling on the visitors' green shoots of recovery.

Scout report

Dan Long, Sky Sports: City back winning games after uncharacteristic blip

Fresh off the back of winning the Premier League title after nine straight wins to close out 2023/24, Man City carried on in the same vain in 2024/25.

UEFA Super Cup and Club World Cup aside, that had been their only major piece of silverware, so getting back to competing on multiple fronts was high on the list of priorities for Pep Guardiola and his squad.

They won the first three, then made it 13 league wins on the spin when Erling Haaland’s double cancelled out Yoane Wissa’s opener after just 22 seconds against Brentford on 14 September.

With the unbeaten start stretched to nine by 26 October – when Haaland had already netted 11 – it seemed to be business as usual.

But City were dumped out of the Carabao Cup at the fourth round stage by Tottenham on 30 October and, inside the next fortnight, they lost 2-1 to both Bournemouth and Brighton in the Premier League. Injuries were starting to mount up, and the level to which they missed Ballon d’Or winner Rodri – sidelined by an ACL injury - was obvious.

The November international break would, seemingly, give them time to catch their breath. Guardiola hadn’t lost four games in a row in his managerial career until the Brighton defeat – and managers of his calibre don’t make a habit of losing five or more.

Nonetheless, the fifth came after the international break – just one day after he quelled speculation about his future by signing a new two-year deal - when Tottenham won 4-0 at the Etihad. "In eight years we have never lived this kind of situation,” the Spaniard said afterwards. “Now we have to live it and break it by winning the next games, especially the next one.”

City lost that one, against Liverpool, too. “I didn't expect Anfield at 0-2 to chant about [me being] sacked, maybe I deserve to be sacked, honestly,” he said.

In the most un-City-like fashion, they took five points from the next five and were down in seventh, 12 points behind Liverpool, on Christmas Day. The title race is an afterthought at this moment in time and even finishing in the top eight of the Champions League looks unlikely after only two wins from six so far.

However, they are winning games again. After a disappointing 1-1 draw against Everton on Boxing Day, they picked up a first win in five games against Leicester on 29 December, with Haaland ending a third three-game goal drought in the league after Savinho had opened the scoring.

And on 4 January, they started 2025 as they mean to go on with a 4-1 win against West Ham. It was the first time they had won back-to-back Premier League games since October. Haaland scored another two as he continued to get back into the groove, with Savinho assisting both.

For most teams, the blip City have experienced recently wouldn't be a cause for concern; it’s just that City’s standards demand more. But now it has happened, you can be certain they won’t want to go through it again.

In the dugout

Pep Guardiola

Pep Guardiola was born an hour’s drive from Barcelona and joined the club’s La Masia academy in 1984, aged 13.

He rose through the ranks and became a key part of Johan Cruyff’s team in the 1990s, before later playing under Bobby Robson and Louis van Gaal at the Nou Camp.

During 10 full seasons in the first team, the midfielder won 15 trophies, including six La Liga titles and the European Cup in 1991/92. He departed after 17 years in 2001 and played out the rest of his playing days with Roma and Brescia in Italy, Al-Ahli in Qatar, and then in Mexico with Dorados, before calling it quits in 2006.

Before long, he was back in Spain as Barcelona B manager. Promotion in the first season, 2007/08, saw him selected to step up as Frank Rijkaard’s successor and, over the next four seasons, he established himself as one of the great minds of football. His tiki-taka style of play heralded an astonishing 14 trophies, six of which they won during a mind-blowing 2009.

The serial winner took a year’s sabbatical before joining Bayern Munich in June 2013. In Germany, he delivered three straight Bundesliga titles, two German Cups, one European Super Cup and one Club World Cup - the third of a career that had spanned all of six years to that point.

By the end of his time in Bavaria, Guardiola already knew his next move, having signed a three-year contract in February 2016 to replace Manuel Pellegrini that summer.

In the nine years since, the 53-year-old has become Manchester City’s most successful manager ever, with 18 trophies turning them into a footballing powerhouse; one of Europe’s undoubted elites.

He is now the longest-serving manager in the Premier League and second only to Harrogate Town’s Simon Weaver as the longest-serving manager in the top four divisions.

Guardiola reached 500 games in charge of the club with a 2-0 win at Leicester on 29 December and is less than 100 games away from becoming the man to have managed the most City games in history, with only Les McDowell ahead of him on 592.

The gameplan

With Simon Bajkowski, chief Manchester City writer for the Manchester Evening News

Simon Bajkowski, chief Manchester City writer for the Manchester Evening News, explains how Pep Guardiola's side are likely to be set up to take on the Bees.

"I think it will be a familiar looking shape, in terms of a 4-3-3 with three wingers and three midfielders," said Bajkowski. "But the midfield has been played through by a lot of teams, including Brentford at the Etihad.

"It will be a similar team to what Brentford saw in that game, when they certainly had the chances to win the game."

Read our full interview with Simon Bajkowski here.

Pre-match press conference

Brentford boosted by defensive duo's return

Brentford head coach Thomas Frank confirmed that Rico Henry will be involved against Manchester City, having made his long-awaited return on Saturday against Plymouth, and Ben Mee will also be in contention.

“From the Southampton squad, everyone is available. Vitaly [Janelt] and [Christian] Nørgaard are back in,” said Frank.

"Rico is available again for the squad and Ben Mee is ready, which is positive news.

“I’m very, very pleased that Rico is back. He’s been one of our best players in the four years in the Premier League.

"He will be involved in the squad tomorrow and it’s up to me to find out how much I can use him. It’s unlikely he will start; it’s still a building process."

Match officials

Taylor returns to Gtech for first time this term

Referee: Anthony Taylor

Assistants: Gary Berwick and Adam Nunn

Fourth official: Will Finnie

VAR: Peter Bankes

Anthony Taylor will be the man in the middle of a Brentford fixture for the first time since December 2023 on Tuesday night.

Taylor had the whistle for the Bees' 3-1 win against Luton Town at Gtech Community Stadium, but is yet to officiate Thomas Frank's side this term.

The 46-year-old has taken charge of 18 Premier League games in the 2024/25 season, plus three in the Champions League and one in the Europa League.

Memorable meeting

Brentford 1 Manchester City 0 (Premier League, 28 May 2023)

Ethan Pinnock scored the only goal of the game as Brentford closed the 2022/23 campaign with a 1-0 win over Premier League champions Manchester City.

The centre-back drilled in with five minutes remaining after Kevin Schade's cross had been headed back into the middle of the box by Bryan Mbeumo.

Despite picking up three points, the west Londoners narrowly missed out on the European qualification spots, while Pep Guardiola's side went onto complete a historic treble in the following weeks, defeating Manchester United in the FA Cup final and Inter Milan to lift the Champions League.