Brentford striker Ivan Toney has the ability to test a Manchester City defence that has not been at its best of late, says Manchester Evening News' Simon Bajkowski.

Toney has scored two goals in two games since his return to action after eight months out, and will be looking to net again against a City side that has kept just two clean sheets in their last 15 Premier League games.

Manchester City are second in the Premier League, having just passed the halfway mark of the season. What have you made of their campaign so far?

It has been a bit of an odd season, really. They started better than anyone expected by winning the first six and had some pretty mixed results after that, but that was only by their standards.

It felt like they were in a difficult position before they left for the Club World Cup in December, as they had only won one of their last six, yet, by the time they were coming back from that tournament and had beaten Everton a few days later, many were still seeing them as title favourites.

This season, they have had something of a new-look squad; there was more change over the summer than even City expected, so there have been some teething issues with that but, at the halfway mark, they are very well positioned to win the Premier League again, so they will look to kick on in the second half and make it four in a row.

How important is it that Erling Haaland is back fit and firing for the last few months?

It is important, and we have seen it with the brief cameos Kevin De Bruyne has had since he has come back from injury.

Pep Guardiola has spoken, quite interestingly, about the pair of them, saying they do not necessarily help City play better, but they help them win games.

There have been plenty of games this season where City have conceded more goals than they should have done or you would have expected them to have done, which has partly been about not scoring the goals they should have done and that has, in turn, put more pressure on the team to defend and they have not been able to cope with that pressure.

When Haaland is around and he is fit and in form, he will be a huge asset to City, but there are no guarantees that will come. He was playing for three months before he got injured and, for one of those months, he was at his best; the other two he was slightly below that.

It will be great for City to get him back but, more importantly than that, will be him finding his rhythm again, which may take more time.

What did you make of City’s January window?

It was quite a heavy spend in the summer as they are a club that like to do their business in that window and do not like going into the winter window if they can help it.

Claudio Echeverri is staying at River Plate on loan for the rest of the calendar year, so he will not be involved in the second half of the season.

I think the squad has been stretched too thinly at times, with injuries and suspensions this season, but Guardiola likes a small squad and, if he can get Haaland, De Bruyne, John Stones and Manuel Akanji back in his team, it will suddenly look like City are very, very strong again.

Which player should Brentford fans keep an eye on?

I would say Bernardo Silva. One of City’s best bits of business in the summer was keeping hold of him again and getting him to sign a contract extension.

He has been so important to the way City play for many years and that has continued this season. Silva has been a driving force, but perhaps hasn't got the headlines Phil Foden or Julián Álvarez have because they are newer parts of the system this season. Silva has been important to their improvement in league form over the last four weeks or so.

How is Guardiola like to set up in west London?

Good question! Assuming Haaland is not quite ready to start, I think we can expect the following: Ederson; Kyle Walker, Rúben Dias, Nathan Aké, Joško Gvardiol; Rodri, Phil Foden, Mateo Kovačić; Bernardo Silva, Jack Grealish; Julián Álvarez.

Brentford shocked many and did the double over Manchester City last season - what’s your prediction this time around?

It is difficult because City have gone behind in three of their last four away league games at the time of speaking, but also come back to win three of those four, so it depends which way you want to view that.

Brentford will put up a very difficult challenge and, with all the noise around the return of Ivan Toney, he will test a City defence that has not been keeping many clean sheets.

Therefore, I think it might be a draw - I’ll go for 1-1.