Pep talks!
John Brewin’s match report has landed, so I’ll wrap the blog up. Thanks for your company and emails - goodnight.
The post-match thoughts of Phil Foden
“It’s an important win. Brentford made it really difficult – they’re a physical team and really dangerous from set-pieces. I’ve had a few disallowed goals this year and I wasn’t too confident [when he scored the winning goal]; I thought I might have gone too early.
“I’m enjoying it [playing as a false nine], it’s really good. I started off the left in the first half, don’t forget. Wherever the manager puts me, I try to do my best for the team. It’s good that I’m adaptable and can fit in anywhere.
“[Have you won the league, Phil? Have ya?] This is the most challenging team in the world and you can drop points at any time. Like I said, we’re remaining focussed and playing really well, so I’m happy.”
Manchester City had two good results in west London tonight. Here’s Jacob Steinberg’s report on Chelsea 1-1 Brighotn.
City’s goal was a gem, made by De Bruyne and finished by Foden, and they had a couple more disallowed for tight offsides. But they were nowhere near the best, and you can argue it was a moral victory - or at least a draw - for injury-hit Brentford. They fought admirably to restrict City to a handful of chances, and could have taken the lead themselves in the first half. Brentford should stay up; City will almost certainly win the league.
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Full time: Brentford 0-1 Man City
Peep peep! Manchester City go eight points clear after a scruffy but deserved victory at the Brentford Community Stadium.
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90+3 min Jesus charges thrillingly into the area and thrashes a left-footed shot that is palmed up in the air by Fernandez.
90 min There will be three minutes of added hope.
89 min Brentford have done so well to stay in the game, but in truth they don’t look like equalising. City have kept them at a distance throughout the second half.
NO GOAL! Brentford 0-1 Man City
VAR has done Brentford a solid. Laporte was this far offside, so the goal is disallowed.
That foul on Foden led to the goal. De Bruyne clipped a flat free-kick into the middle, where Laporte steered an accomplished header back across Fernandez.
GOAL! Brentford 0-2 Man City (Laporte 87)
Goodnight.
86 min Foden dances past three players and is fouled. It feels like the match is petering out, which is unusual when the score is only 1-0.
83 min “Greetings from Dublin,” writes Nora. “Is Jack really playing tonight?”
He surely is. He barely touched the ball in the first 45 minutes but had a good spell in the first half of the second half. Grealish will be fine – a lot of creative players who sign for Pep Guardiola enjoy a different kind of second-season syndrome.
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81 min The young left wing-back Dominic Thompson is struggling. I’m not sure what the problem is but he’s limping off. Saman Ghoddos replaces him.
80 min Fernandinho angles a fine pass over Thompson to find Jesus, but his volleyed cross is too close to Fernandez.
80 min Imagine being so good that you can go eight points clear and still get an almighty brollocking from your manager after the game.
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79 min City started the second half superbly but have become increasingly sloppy. It’s going to be a helluva disappointing victory if it stays like this.
77 min Foden’s corner is half cleared towards Fernandinho, who screeches it into orbit from the edge of the area. Pep silently fumes.
75 min Another change for Brentford: Mads Bidstrup replaces the impressive Frank Onyeka.
72 min A Brentford corner is partially cleared to Onyeka, whose snapshot is blocked. This is, by a distance, Brentford’s best spell of the second half.
71 min Pep Guardiola looks disgusted with City’s performance in the last five or ten minutes. He’s pacing round the touchline, stroking his face like he’s having an existential crisis.
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70 min “Is there anything, I mean anything, that can de-rail Man City?” asks Andy. “Aside from Guardiola being hit by a bus.”
Well, you’ll have a chance if you win 26 of your first 27 games, like Liverpool did two seasons ago. I do think Pep Guardiola teams can be slightly vulnerable when they slip behind a high-quality opponent, but as frontrunners they are savage.
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69 min De Bruyne wafts over from 30 yards. Then Brentford make a change: Sergi Canos is on for Yoane Wissa. He usually plays at wing-back but he’s going straight up front.
66 min: De Bruyne hits the post! It was a classy effort, a threaded low shot from 20 yards that beat the sprawling Fernandez and hit the outside of the near post.
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65 min Whatever the final score, Brentford should be proud of their performance tonight. They’re missing 11 players, they’re playing the best team in the world on current form, yet they are still in the game after 65 minutes.
64 min Keep reminding yourself it’s only 1-0.
63 min “Hi Rob,” says Simon McMahon. “You seem to be discounting Man United and Tottenham in your title calculations. Both have three games in hand. Hic.”
62 min A dangerous low cross from Jesus is grabbed by the diving Fernandez.
61 min Grealish is playing from the left in the second half, with Foden as the false nine. Grealish has been much more involved since that change was made.
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59 min Here’s the Premier League table as things stand. As Sid Lowe used to say of La Liga, draws are the new defeats.
58 min A dismal square pass from Cancelo goes straight to Baptiste, who moves to within 25 yards of goal and hits a stinging shot that is blocked by Ake.
57 min A rare Brentford attack ends when Toney’s sharp cross is cleared at the near post.
55 min “Alright, Rob,” says Adam Griffiths. “Just a quick thank you to you and your fellow MBMers, and all the listeners out in MBM land, for helping keep me sane and full of football this past year. Merry New Year to all, let us hope that 2022 is less of a pr!ck about things. Hugs to anyone that needs them.”
Cheers Adam – the same to you and all our readers. Okay, most of them.
53 min City have been brilliant since half-time, much more aggressive both in their pressing and passing. Pep Guardiola may be a cherished member of the bald community but he still has a top-of-the-range hairdryer.
51 min It’s all over - at Stamford Bridge, and maybe in the title race. Chelsea’s next game is against Liverpool, so at least one of them will drop points.
50 min: Foden has a goal disallowed! It was a lovely team goal, with Foden eventually heading Jesus’s cross past Fernandez, but he was a couple of yards offside.
50 min More good news for City: Danny Welbeck has scored an injury-time equaliser for Brighton at Stamford Bridge. That means, as things stand, City are eight points clear.
48 min Fernandez makes a comfortable save from De Bruyne, who whipped a left-footed curler from 22 yards.
46 min Foden almost makes it 2-0 after 49 seconds of the second half! It was another wicked ball in from De Bruyne towards Foden at the near post. This time it came at head rather than ankle height, and Foden’s flicked header drifted just wide of the far post.
46 min Peep peep! Brentford begin the second half.
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Half-time reading
Half time: Brentford 0-1 Man City
Peep peep! City lead through Phil Foden’s clinical finish, their only shot on target in an intriguing but largely uneventful first half. They have controlled the game, what with it being a football match, and have had 81 per cent of the possession. But Brentford have been determined, resourceful and dangerous on the counter-attack. Their best chance came less than a minute before the goal, when Yoane Wissa’s shot was headed off the line by Joao Cancelo. There has also been a bit of niggle, most notably between Fernandinho and Ivan Toney, and that’s all you’re getting for now.
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45 min Cancelo shapes to shoot and plays a beautiful disguised pass to Jesus in the area. He twists past one defender but can’t beat the second. City keep the ball alive, and Fernandinho flattens Jensen with a rising shot to the face. Dias’s follow-up takes two deflections and is pushed away to his right by Fernandez, though the shot was going wide anyway.
43 min “Shame to see the game over so early,” says Phil Haran. “Man City will now go into pass overdrive and bore everyone whilst scoring if opportunities arise due to the desperation of Brentford.”
In fairness to City, when it comes to boredom, they have nothing on the Spanish Art Project of Euro 2012.
42 min Fernandinho stays down after a retaliatory stamp of sorts from Toney, who might be in trouble. His studs brushed the side of Fernandinho’s shin, and again I’m sure it was accidental. VAR aren’t interested. It wasn’t a full stamp from Toney, more a gentle lowering of his studs onto Fernandinho’s skin.
41 min Toney goes down holding a few body parts after an off-the-ball spat with Fernandinho. It looks like Fernandinho stood on Toney’s toes, though I’m sure it was accidental.
40 min “I don’t think any video exists (27 min),” says Matt Dony, cackling as he throws the last VHS on the bonfire. “Which is a shame, because as I remember, I gave a powerhouse performance. One minute, addressing the audience directly in defence of the morality of Robin Hood’s theft, and then in a separate skit, miming a striptease. I wish I was joking.”
38 min City have had 78 per cent of the possession, it says here, but Foden’s goal is still their only shot on target.
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36 min Jesus drives it flat and beyond the far post, where Ake heads the ball off Toney and behind for a goalkick.
36 min Jensen will have another chance here, because Cancelo has fouled Toney 30 yards from goal.
34 min Jesus, harassed by Onyeka and Toney in his own half, hacks at the former to give Brentford a free-kick on the left wing. Jensen, who is usually so good from set pieces, hoofs it straight out of play.
32 min Jesus cuts inside and thrashes a shot that hits Thompson and ricochets across the Brentford penalty area. No City player was able to take advantage. If he signs for this lot, Erling Haaland will score 200 goals a year.
31 min De Bruyne’s free-kick is headed away. The goal aside, Brentford’s defence have kept City at arm’s length.
30 min Jesus jinks past Thompson and is fouled. Free-kick to City on the right wing, 19 yards from goal...
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28 min A dangerous free-kick from Jensen is headed over his own bar by Fernandinho. That was an important intervention because Jansson was waiting behind him to score, or miss, or draw a save from Ederson.
27 min Now Dias goes down holding his face after eating an accidental elbow from Toney. He’s fine.
27 min “Brentford really have been a great story,” says Matt Dony. “But, almost as importantly, they give me a chance to reminisce about Brentford Arts Centre, and the time an excruciatingly pretentious 16yr old me performed there as part of project. Twenty-four hours to write and stage a piece based on the works of Bertolt Brecht. In a similar theme, VAR officials appear to be applying Brechtian alienation techniques to their work. Certainly alienating a lot of football fans.”
Please tell me this is on YouTube somewhere.
25 min Jensen is flattened by a stray elbow from, and you’ll like this, the referee David Coote. “There’s a case he should be giving himself a yellow card...” says the co-commentator Ally McCoist.
22 min Ake stops a Brentford break with an apparently clumsy foul on Toney. In reality he knew what he was doing and should have been booked.
22 min The goal has deflated Brentford, who were having a superb spell at the time. City are starting to pass them to sleep.
20 min “I’m now even more confused re: broadcasting rights, because we have Jon Champion on the call here in the U.S. and he doesn’t do Premier League anymore because he’s contracted to ESPN, but he does do the Amazon games<” says Matt Burtz. “And Champion did the Newcastle-Man U game on Monday. So why would Peter Drury (whom we frequently have here) be on your feed, I wonder?”
I have precisely no idea. You’re welcome!
GOAL GIVEN! And what a beauty it was. De Bruyne, 20 yards from goal in the inside-right channel, curled a wicked first-time cross - the kind we’ve seen him deliver a million times - towards Foden at the near post. He opened his body smartly to sidefoot a volley past Fernandez. The goal came less than a minute after Cancelo had cleared off the line from Wissa.
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VAR check for offside I think it will be given.
GOAL! Brentford 0-1 Man City (Foden 16)
Football is a cruel old game, part 432423413412321.
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16 min: Off the line by Cancelo! The resulting corner was driven deep and headed back across goal towards the unmarked Wissa. His shot was saved by Ederson, but would still have spun into the net had Cancelo not headed it away at the far post.
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15 min: Good save from Ederson! This is a brilliant spell for Brentford. Onyeka’s cutback takes a big deflection off Dias, forcing Ederson to jump backwards to push the ball behind.
14 min Jensen tries to score from the halfway line! It was a worthwhile effort, with Ederson near the penalty spot, but it drifted a few yards wide.
12 min But Ederson has had something to do! Brentford pressed well, forcing Dias (I think) into a mistake. Onyeka charged away from Joao Cancelo, into the area, before sidefooting too close to Ederson.
11 min Thomas Frank will be really pleased with this start. Brentford have barely had a kick, truth be told, but all of that’s what the point is not. The point’s that the goalkeeper Alvaro Fernandez has had nothing to do.
8 min Peter Drury, the Amazon commentator, spots that the grass is unusually long, a deliberate attempt to disrupt City’s passing game. Great stuff. I wonder if they’ve put the heating on full blast in the away dressing-room as well.
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7 min Loads of early City possession - who knew - but Brentford look comfortable in defence for now. It’s been a pretty sedate start to the game.
4 min Roerslev’s low cross is cleared lazily by Laporte. The ball loops towards Baptiste, who can’t resist a volley from 25 yards. Goalkick.
2 min De Bruyne surges through midfield and finds Grealish on the right side of the area. He screws a low cross that is intercepted by Pinnock, though his clearance hits Jansson and goes behind for a corner. Nothing comes of it.
2 min City have started with Jack Grealish as their false nine. Foden is on the left wing, Bernardo Silva is the left-sided central midfielder.
1 min Peep peep! City kick off from right to left.
There’s a cracking atmosphere at the Brentford Community Stadium, as usual, and the home fans are currently repurposing Hey Jude to pay tribute to their team. They’ve been one of the feelgood stories of 2021; imagine if they finish it by beating the champions.
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The UK’s most trusted clickbait
There’s been a goal at Stamford Bridge.
Three changes for Brentford from the defeat at Brighton on Boxing Day. Mads Roerslev, Frank Onyeka and Yoane Wissa replace Sergi Canos, Christian Norgaard (suspended) and Bryan Mbuemo (calf injury). Brentford are missing 11 players in total.
The booze brothers are back for City, who make four changes from that madcap 6-3 win over Leicester. Nathan Ake, Gabriel Jesus, Phil Foden and Jack Grealish come in; Oleksandr Zinchenko, Riyad Mahrez, Ilkay Gundogan and Raheem Sterling are rotated out. We don’t know yet how City’s front six will line up - I’ve put Phil Foden as the false nine but it could be any of them. Except Fernandinho; that would be a bit weird. Pep would probably make it work, mind.
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Team news
Brentford (3-5-2) Fernandez; Pinnock, Jansson, Sorensen; Roerslev, Baptiste, Jensen, Onyeka, Thompson; Wissa, Toney.
Substitutes: Cox, Stevens, Peart-Harris, Bidstrup, Canos, Forss, Ghoddos.
Manchester City (4-3-3) Ederson; Cancelo, Dias, Laporte, Ake; De Bruyne, Fernandinho, Bernardo; Jesus, Foden, Grealish.
Substitutes: Steffen, Carson, Sterling, Gundogan, Zinchenko, Mahrez, Mbete, Palmer.
Referee David Coote.
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There’s another important game tonight, Chelsea v Brighton at Stamford Bridge. That one kicks off at 7.30pm, and you can follow it with Dave Tindall.
Preamble
Brentford, your country needs you. For the good of the title race, somebody needs to take some points off Manchester City quicksmart. There’s a grave danger that, for the fifth time in six seasons, the greatest league in the world will have a title procession rather than a race. It would be particularly deflating this year, because for most of the autumn it looked like we were heading for a classic three-horse race. Chelsea’s blip, Liverpool’s slip last night and another terrifying run of form from City have threatened that. City have won their last nine league games, scoring 30 goals in that process, and are six points clear at the top.
The year will end as it started for City, with a trip to West London. They were eighth (!) in the table and ravaged by Covid when they went to Stamford Bridge on 3 January; an awesome first-half performance changed their season at a stroke. Since then, domestically at least, they have been irresistible. A win tonight would be their 36th in the Premier League in 2021.
City will probably take three points, this being a football match, but that doesn’t mean they have an easy fixture. Brentford’s home performances have been better than a record of 10 points from eight games suggests - don’t make me get the xG out - and the rest of the top four have had a tough time on this ground. Arsenal lost, Liverpool drew 3-3 and Chelsea’s 1-0 victory was mainly down to their goalkeeper Edouard Mendy.
Aye, it might be a bit of a reach. But if you want an exciting title race, it’s all we’ve got.
Kick off 8.15pm.
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