City get serious as unstoppable Foden sends a title warning
NO lap of honour here for Manchester City. No cameras required. Three points, though. Three predictable and rather ominous points for Pep Guardiola and his team of champions.
After the carnival at the Emirates on Sunday, this was a little more sedate even though City had to come from behind. City’s intent now, though, is clear. Arsenal’s win over Liverpool may have placed the London club back in the title race but it also served to put City back in control of it.
Guardiola’s team may not be top but they will be if they win their game in hand, also against Brentford later this month. For the first time in a long time, City have their destiny in their own hands and that’s exactly the way they like it.
Here they were dominant throughout. Brentford actually scored first midway through the first half as Neal Maupay ran on to a long goal kick and slid his team into the lead. No darts celebration as there had been when he scored at Spurs, just a slight pin prick placed in City’s ambitions.
For a while Brentford held firm. Goalkeeper Mark Flekken was superb. By the time half-time neared, City had taken 16 shots and their 17th, delivered from 12 yards by Phil Foden, finally went in. That wasn’t quite that for Brentford’s ambitions but it was the start of it.
Foden scored twice in the second half to register a hat-trick. There were also 85 minutes for Erling Haaland, another night of progress for Kevin De Bruyne while City have John Stones, Jack Grealish and players like Jeremy Doku and young Oscar Bobb on the substitutes bench.
There is renewed hope at Arsenal. Liverpool will be driven on by the emotion and adrenaline of Jurgen Klopp’s long goodbye. So it should be a riveting title race. It will, however, still be a surprise if City don’t prevail once again.
The first half was engrossing. City were hungry and fluent, dominating every single stat apart from the one that mattered. Brentford, though, were energetic, committed and organised. They ran hard and having a rather inspired goalkeeper can certainly help when facing a Guardiola team. Flekken was busy almost from the opening moment. Many of City’s shots arrived from outside the penalty area. They still needed saving, though, and Flekken was at full stretch to turn a good number of them away.
With Haaland back in City’s starting line-up and De Bruyne gradually finding his levels after his own long injury lay-off, City were dangerous. Indeed Haaland would have scored in the seventh minute when he connected with a De Bruyne pull-back only to find Brentford central defender Ethan Pinnock making a block on his own six-yard line.
Flekken then contributed a flurry of saves in a short space of time. Twice he denied Julian Alvarez before diving full length to his right to turn aside a vicious Kyle Walker shot that he didn’t seem to see until the last moment. It felt as though a goal must come quickly and indeed it did, to Brentford.
It’s hard to recall the last time — if ever — a Guardiola team have conceded a goal like this one and it was perhaps fitting that Flekken was involved. The long goal kick delivered upfield in the 21st minute may well have been headed away by Nathan Ake but with Ivan Toney blocking the City defender’s progress, Maupay was able to run through untracked to slide his fifth goal in five games underneath Ederson and into the corner.
Maupay was thrilled and his recent upturn in form has been significant. But Toney took his share of the congratulations, too, which suggested City had just fallen victim to a Brentford training-ground plan.
City may well have been shocked but they almost replied immediately, Haaland running clear only to be denied by Flekken’s legs.
City controlled possession and the territory but their defending continued to be sketchy. Ederson, in particular, didn’t seem to know whether to come or stay whenever balls were played, long or short, into the gap between his central defenders and 18-yard box.
Still Flekken earned his money at the other end, though. Foden was denied in rather individual fashion while shots from De Bruyne and left back Josko Gvardiol were both turned round the post. All of which made the nature of City’s equaliser, 30 seconds before half-time, all the more disappointing for Brentford.
De Bruyne’s cross from the right was possibly his worst of the night but when Pinnock misjudged the flight and headed weakly to Foden, he controlled the ball and drove it in from 12 yards or so.
The timing of the goal was everything for City in that it made their second-half task a great deal easier. Indeed, Foden had his hattrick and City had their victory before we had even reached the 70-minute mark.
His second goal arrived eight minutes after half-time. Again it was well taken. Again De Bruyne delivered the cross. Again it was a poor defensive goal.
Foden took it beautifully, stooping to steer a low header across Flekken and into the far corner. He was unmarked, though, and because Nathan Collins had not stepped out with his team-mates, he was also a yard onside.
So now the mountain in front of Brentford was visible. A team with hardly any possession at that stage had to find a way back.
To their immense credit, they threatened three times before Foden put the game to bed. First a Christian Norgaard shot was blocked by Ruben Dias when it appeared to be heading in. Then Gvardiol did likewise to frustrate Maupay before Toney connected
well on the volley only to fizz the ball over.
This burst of activity in the City penalty area was spread across just six minutes and that was as good as it got. In the 70th minute Foden was first to a loose ball 14 yards out and drove in the goal that ended what had been a contest of contrasting styles but all the more watchable because of it.
BRENTFORD (3-5-2): Flekken 8; Collins 6, Pinnock 5.5, Mee 6.5; Roerslev 6 (Roerslev 75min, 6), Jensen 6.5 (Damsgaard 75, 6), Norgaard 6, Janelt 6 (Yarmoliuk 75, 6), Reguilon 5.5 (Ajer 78); Toney 6, Maupay 7 (Baptiste 90). Scorer: Maupay 21. Booked: Maupay. Manager: Thomas Frank 6. MANCHESTER CITY (4-1-4-1): Ederson 6; Walker 7, Dias 7, Ake 6 , Gvardiol 6; Rodri 7; Bernardo Silva 6.5 (Doku 71, 6), Alvarez 6.5, De Bruyne 7, FODEN 8.5; Haaland 6 (Kovacic 86). Scorer: Foden 45+3, 53, 70. Booked: None. Manager: Pep Guardiola 7. Referee: Jarred Gillett 6. Attendance: 17,096.