Brentford boss Keith Andrews pays ultimate compliment to Pep Guardiola ahead of Manchester City clash | OneFootball

Brentford manager Keith Andrews has extolled the virtues of Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola ahead of their Premier League meeting on Sunday.

City will be looking to build on their recent league beating of Burnley when they visit the Gtech Community Stadium, where Ruben Amorim and Manchester United suffered a 3-1 defeat at the hands of the Bees last weekend.

Guardiola’s men were held to a 2-2 draw by AS Monaco in the UEFA Champions League group-phase on Wednesday as Eric Dier’s injury-time penalty salvaged a point for the Ligue 1 outfit despite Erling Haaland’s first-half brace at the Stade Louis II.

After a meagre start to the 2025-26 season, Manchester City have turned a corner following the September international break and have looked the part in their recent beatings of Manchester United, Napoli, Huddersfield and Burnley.

The Blues sit in seventh place in the Premier League table after six games, five points behind league leaders and title holders Liverpool, and Guardiola will be wary of any further slip-ups early in the season after City’s losses to Tottenham and Brighton in August.

City are navigating a period of transition on and off the pitch after a major rejig of the first-team squad in the summer, with newly-appointed director of football Hugo Viana orchestrating the arrival of seven new signings and sanctioning a series of notable departures.

However, Brentford manager Keith Andrews is not taking the upcoming test against Manchester City lightly and has hailed Guardiola as one of the modern managerial greats as the Bees look to welcome the eight-time Premier League champions to west London on Sunday.

“I don’t know many who wouldn’t have taken inspiration from such an innovative manager,” said Andrews on Guardiola ahead of this weekend’s clash, as quoted by Brentford’s official website.

“He (Guardiola) is probably been the best manager of the last 15 years, in the modern era; the way he’s coached the game, the way he’s changed the way the game is perceived and played at different clubs and in different countries.

“I’ve come through my coaching journey and coaching courses, and his (Guardiola’s) name was pretty prevalent throughout those. To say I have ultimate respect for him is an understatement. I’m aware of who I’m going up against, but I don’t see it as me versus him.

“It’s us as a club and our team (Brentford) against theirs (Manchester City). It’s about the players and how we can prepare them to go into a really, really tough game against a top, top manager and top players who have world-class ability.

“It’s about how we can nullify that and stop that, as well as cause them real problems. Having said that, it’s not lost on me that I’ll be in the opposite dugout to one of the greats (in Guardiola).”

Guardiola is expected to provide a detailed brief on his squad’s fitness status in a press conference on Friday afternoon, with concerns over Rayan Cherki, Rayan Ait-Nouri, Omar Marmoush and Abdukodir Khusanov.