Goals from Jérémy Doku, Erling Haaland and Omar Marmoush sealed a 3-0 win for Manchester City against Brentford in the Premier League on Saturday evening.

The Bees put in a competitive first-half display at Etihad Stadium, but Doku curled in a second-half opener, Haaland scrambled in a second and Marmoush netted another in stoppage-time to secure all three points for the title chasers.

Keith Andrews made two changes for the trip to Manchester, with Kristoffer Ajer and Aaron Hickey replacing Sepp van den Berg and Dango Ouattara in the starting XI. Kevin Schade also made his 100th Premier League appearance for the club.

Doku tested Caoimhín Kelleher inside the opening five minutes, when he picked the ball up in a wide area and drove at Michael Kayode. He jinked inside and fizzed a shot towards goal, which the Bees keeper beat away, before it was further cleared by Keane Lewis-Potter.

It looked like Brentford might take the lead soon after, when Kayode launched one of his trademark long throw-ins into the box. Gianluigi Donnarumma came for the ball but missed it as Schade nudged it towards goal, with Matheus Nunes on the line to clear it away.

Bernardo Silva and Haaland then had efforts for the hosts, both created by Doku. First, the winger's neat footwork set up Silva's outside-of-the-boot shot which flew high and wide; the Belgium international then crossed for the City striker, who headed over the crossbar.

The west Londoners were appealing for a foul and a potential red card for Nunes halfway through the opening period, with Schade in on goal. The German was played in by an Igor Thiago flick-on, before the City man stretched out his leg and brought down the Bees forward. However, replays showed the defender got a stud on the ball.

Doku was at the heart of things for Pep Guardiola's side again, as he wriggled away from Mathias Jensen and passed to Haaland. The striker's shot was blocked by a wall of Brentford defenders before Kelleher gratefully clutched onto the rebound, which almost wormed its way in.

Thiago had Brentford's best chance of the game 10 minutes into the second half, when he was played in by a pinpoint Kayode pass, which saw the Brazilian bear down on goal. The striker delayed his shot and, when he did pull the trigger inside the six-yard box, it was stopped well by Donnarumma.

City opened the scoring on the hour mark. A corner was played short to Doku, who appeared to lose the ball as Damsgaard and Jensen shut him down in a wide area. The winger managed to win the ball back and evade both of the Danes, before curling a shot off the post and into the back of the net.

Kelleher prevented it from becoming 2-0 just six minutes later, when City won the ball back inside the Brentford penalty area. Doku tackled Ajer, who tried to dribble his way out of the box, and played in Foden; the second-half substitute looked certain to score, but the Bees no.1 kept it out.

Haaland did double their lead with 15 minutes to play. Antoine Semenyo beat his man and played a low cross into the box, which the west Londoners couldn't quite clear. The Premier League's top goalscorer managed to backheel it onto himself before it somehow ricocheted across the line.

Kelleher produced another stunning save with 10 minutes to play, as he thwarted Foden again. Doku created the chance once more, which saw his City team-mate fire a volley towards goal from point-blank range, only for the Republic of Ireland international to extraordinarily turn it over the bar.

City scored their third in stoppage-time, as Haaland played in Marmoush, who finished from a tight angle, into the bottom corner.

Thiago was close to scoring his 23rd Premier League goal of the season when Ouattara's cross found the Brazilian inside the penalty area. His header looked goalbound, but Donnarumma did just enough to tip it over the crossbar and secure the clean sheet for the Cityzens.

Manchester City (4-2-3-1): Donnarumma; Nunes, Guéhi, Aké, O'Reilly; Reijnders (Foden 60), Silva; Doku (Savinho 90), Cherki (Marmoush 60), Semenyo; Haaland

Subs not used: Trafford, Dias, Stones, Kovacic, Nico, Ait-Nouri

Brentford (4-3-3): Kelleher; Kayode, Ajer, Collins, Lewis-Potter; Yarmoliuk (Henderson 79), Jensen, Hickey (Janelt 62), Damsgaard (Ouattara 69); Thiago, Schade

Subs not used: Valdimarsson, van den Berg, Pinnock, Dasilva, Nelson, Furo

Andrews on City loss

Keith Andrews shared his thoughts on Brentford's 3-0 defeat at the Etihad.

"Ultimately, we’re disappointed," said the Bees' head coach.

"In the first half, I thought we defended brilliantly and showed the courage to try and play through them.

"We broke their backline and looked a threat from set-pieces. I thought we started the second half really well and played with a real freedom and good structure.

"The first goal is a wonderstrike, we’ll be disappointed we gave the ball away. The second is a tad scruffy and the third was when we were chasing the game."

On the decision not to award his side a second-half penalty, Andrews added: "It’s difficult. The one I’m disappointed with is the one in the second half where Kevin Schade is going through on goal.

"I just don’t know why he would go down unless there’s contact because there is a goal waiting for him."

Janelt on defeat, performance and his return to side

Midfielder Vitaly Janelt made his return for Brentford on Saturday and gave his thoughts on the defeat to Manchester City.

"We are all disappointed," he said. "They controlled a lot of the game, but when you go into half-time 0-0 it's not the worst result.

"Coming out [for the second half], we knew they would tweak some bits and apply more pressure.

"Everyone knew that they had to win today, otherwise their season was over, in terms of the title, so we knew it was going to be tough.

"It's disappointing because we were a bit more in there, but we didn't create that many chances. When I came on, it felt like we had good space out there, but we didn't quite take it."

He added: "It was good [to be back], but it could have been a better game for that! For me, it's about getting the rhythm back. We have two very important games left and, if we keep going like today, we have the real possibility of getting some points."