Brentford welcome Manchester City to Gtech Community Stadium on Sunday (4.30pm kick-off GMT), live on Sky Sports.
Igor Thiago’s brace helped the Bees to a 3-1 victory over Manchester United last time out in the Premier League, while Pep Guardiola’s side beat Burnley 5-1.
Analysis, team news, match officials and more. Here's everything you need to know before kick-off.
Pre-match Analysis
Stephen Gillett, Playmaker Stats: Brentford’s threat from dead-ball situations a formidable weapon
Brentford found the antidote to Manchester City’s hypnotic passing game during the latter’s treble season - but the Bees may require a different approach to hurt City and their ‘Class of 25’ this Sunday.
The Bees doubled the Sky Blues during the Mancunian club’s record-breaking 2022/23 campaign, which saw them lift the Premier League, the FA Cup and the Champions League.
Those victories saw Brentford topple Pep Guardiola’s side at the height of its powers courtesy of a high-intensity, direct brand of football which bypassed City’s world-class midfield and unsettled their backline.
After a tumultuous and trophyless campaign last season, however, the City of today are a different beast: their iconic manager intent on reshaping his squad and his tactics.
Unbeaten on home turf this season, Brentford enter this weekend’s clash buoyed by victory over City’s crosstown rivals Manchester United - and Keith Andrews will relish the chance to pit his wits against Guardiola for the first time.
The tactics employed by the Bees head coach are likely to differ from those which brought his predecessor Thomas Frank success, however, given City’s ongoing transition to a more direct style of play.
To emphasise that last point, City’s average possession share has dropped to 55 per cent this season (from 62 per cent last term).
Their sky-high pass completion rates of yesteryear have dipped and their numbers also reflect an increased appetite for, and efficiency in, aerial duels.
This strategic shift was perhaps most evident in City’s recent 1-1 draw at Arsenal, a game in which they recorded just 32.8 per cent possession – the lowest in a top-flight match for a team managed by Guardiola.
Whatever the tactical trends, though, City remain one of the most feared teams in Europe and they enter this Sunday’s clash at the Gtech as the Premier League’s most prolific scorers with 14 goals and counting.
Goal machine Erling Haaland has bagged eight of City’s league strikes (57 per cent) this term - and his recent form is frightening. In his past dozen games for club and country, the 25-year-old has contributed 18 goals and four assists - with Tottenham the only team to prevent the Norwegian from scoring in that time.
Brentford have an on-form striker of their own, however, in Igor Thiago. The Brazilian notched twice against the Red Devils last weekend to take his tally to five goals in seven games across all competitions for the Bees this season - and Brentford’s efficiency in attack sees them currently boast the top flight’s best shot-on-target percentage (45 per cent).
Thiago’s explosive first goal against United came on the break, as did Mathias Jensen’s late clincher, and it is striking that the Bees - along with Manchester City - top the charts for goals from counter attacks this term, with three. Brentford’s goals last weekend all came from open play, but their threat from dead-ball situations remains a formidable weapon.
City, however, are one of only two sides yet to concede from a set-piece this season - and, remarkably, the only team still waiting to score from one.
Scout Report
Dan Long, Sky Sports: City eager for success after trophyless season
For the time since the 2016/17 season - Pep Guardiola’s first in England - Manchester City did not win a single piece of major silverware in 2024/25.
They finished 13 points behind Liverpool in the Premier League, suffered a fourth-round Carabao Cup exit at the hands of Tottenham and were beaten 6-3 on aggregate by Real Madrid in the Champions League knockout phase play-offs, having only scraped through the league phase by a single point.
Then came the FA Cup final defeat to Crystal Palace, marking the second season in a row they had finished as runners-up, and to finish it all off, they crashed out of the Club World Cup in the last 16 by way of a shock 4-3 defeat after extra-time to Al-Hilal.
Guardiola said securing qualification for the Champions League after finishing third was “like a title” in itself, but conceded: “The distance to Liverpool is huge and we have to improve.”
While the Club World Cup exit was disappointing, it provided a welcome break. City were out by 1 July, but eventual champions Chelsea were in the USA for another 12 days on top of that. Deep down, Guardiola will know the benefits of that.
City had spent around £180 million in the January transfer window, and they took advantage of the summer’s first 10-day transfer window before the Club World Cup to strengthen further, with the signings of Rayan Aït-Nouri, Marcus Bettinelli, Rayan Cherki and Tijjani Reijnders.
After they returned, they signed highly-rated Norwegian teenager Sverre Nypan and goalkeepers James Trafford and Gianluigi Donnarumma, following the end of Ederson’s eight-year spell at the Etihad.
In a short pre-season, they beat Preston and Palermo at the start of August, before opening the new Premier League campaign with a crushing 4-0 win over Wolves.
But they followed that up with defeats, first against Spurs, then Brighton. “Step-by-step, we will make the click,” said Guardiola after the first of those. “Many things are new.”
City have scored nine goals in the last three league games, from which they have taken seven points, progressed to the fourth round of the Carabao Cup and beaten Napoli in their first Champions League game.
Erling Haaland looks in inspired form, too, with nine goals and one assist in seven games in all competitions following his late double against Burnley.
The win over Huddersfield in the Carabao Cup has set up a trip to Swansea at the end of the month which, on paper, should provide them with a good chance to go deep in a competition they won four times in a row between 2017/18 and 2020/21.
Whether they go on to end their trophy drought there remains to be seen, but you can be sure they will be positively ravenous for more.
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 54-year-old has become Manchester City’s most successful manager, with 18 trophies turning them into a footballing powerhouse.
He is now the longest-serving manager in the Premier League and second only to Harrogate’s Simon Weaver as the longest-serving manager in the top four divisions.
Guardiola reached 500 games as City boss with a 2-0 win at Leicester on 29 December and, after the trip to west London, will be 50 games away from becoming the man to have managed the most City games in history, with only Les McDowall ahead of him on 592.
The Gameplan
With Tyrone Marshall, Manchester Evening News
Tyrone Marshall, senior football writer for Manchester Evening News, discusses how goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma has changed Manchester City tactically.
"They will still look a lot like a City team, but the biggest tactical change has probably been in goal, where they have gone from Ederson to Gianluigi Donnarumma," said Marshall.
"We saw it a bit at Arsenal, that what Donnarumma might not give you with his feet, he will give you as an incredibly commanding goalkeeper.
"Brentford are the masters of the long throw, so it will be interesting to see Donnarumma against that, if he continues to dominate the six-yard box and come for everything and punch everything the way he did against Arsenal, and whether that neuters that tactic for teams against City.
"Other than that, they look pretty similar, but they are obviously going to play different at Brentford than they did at Arsenal."
Last starting XI v Burnley in the Premier League (4-1-4-1): Donnarumma; Nunes, Dias, Gvardiol, O'Reilly; González; Savinho, Reijnders, Foden, Doku; Haaland
Read our full interview with Tyrone Marshall here
Team news
Brentford issue update ahead of City clash
Brentford issued an update on the fitness and availability of Fábio Carvalho, Reiss Nelson, Gustavo Nunes and Paris Maghoma ahead of Sunday's Manchester City game.
Carvalho is set to train in the coming days and is in contention for Sunday’s clash, having missed the victory over United with a minor knee injury.
Also available for the City game is Nelson, who hasn’t featured since his debut in the Carabao Cup against Aston Villa. The winger was out with illness but has returned to training.
Nunes’s last appearance for Brentford came in the pre-season fixture against Gil Vicente in Portugal in July. He may be available to add to the matchday squad, or to feature for Brentford B in upcoming matches, after returning to first-team training this week.
Maghoma is still building his fitness, having missed a large part of pre-season, and will train with the B team this week.
Match Officials
England set to referee Sunday’s game at the Gtech
Referee: Darren England
Assistants: Scott Ledger and Nick Greenhalgh
Fourth Official: Andrew Madley
VAR: Paul Howard
Darren England has refereed six matches this season, showing 23 yellow cards and no reds.
England’s last Brentford assignment was the Bees’ 2-0 win at Nottingham Forest at the back end of the 2024/25 campaign.
Last Meeting
Brentford 2 Manchester City 2 (Premier League, 14 January 2025)
Brentford scored twice late on to secure a point against Manchester City in one of the most entertaining Premier League games Gtech Community Stadium has seen.
A Phil Foden double looked set to have earned Pep Guardiola's side the three points in an end-to-end clash in west London, only for Yoane Wissa to pull one back before Christian Nørgaard headed in a 92nd-minute equaliser.
Bryan Mbeumo could have won it for the Bees at the death but, after being found by Kevin Schade in the middle of the box, his shot was headed clear by Nathan Aké.