2020/21 REPORT
League Position: 1st (Champions)
Top League Goalscorer: İlkay Gündoğan (13)
Stadium: Etihad Stadium, Etihad Campus, Manchester, M11 3FF
Capacity: 55,000
Finishing 12 points above their city rivals United, Pep Guardiola's side were crowned Champions of England last season. Their record of 27 wins was six better than any other team in the division, losing just two games away from home all year. Even more impressive, they won 15 league games in a row between 19 December and 2 March.
They were also winners of the Carabao Cup for a fourth consecutive season. They started out in the Third Round with a 2-1 win over AFC Bournemouth, before beating Burnley 3-0 in Round Four. Arsenal and Manchester United were swept aside in the next two rounds, Spurs overcome in the Final on 25 April - Aymeric Laporte scoring the winning goal late in the game.
In the Emirates FA Cup, they made it to the Semi-Finals. Birmingham City, Cheltenham Town and Swansea City were brushed aside in the early rounds before a Quarter-Final with Everton. The Toffess lost 2-0 but the Semi-Final proved too much as Chelsea went through to lose against Leicester at Wembley.
Chelsea were also their opponents in the UEFA Champions League Final. Once again, they proved too much to conquer as Thomas Tuchel claimed his first silverware with The Blues in Portugal. The early rounds saw them win the group that contained FC Porto, Olympiacos and Marseille. They only conceded a single goal, scoring 13 in an unbeaten opening round. They kept clean sheets in both legs of their Last 16 win over Borussia Mönchengladbach too, a 4-0 win. A 4-1 aggregate victory over Borussia Dortmund followed, then a brace from Riyad Mahrez ensured the same scoreline got them past Paris Saint-Germain in the Semi-Finals. Chelsea's Kai Havertz scored the only goal of the Final on 29 May, just a few hours after Brentford confirmed their place in the Premier League via a Wembley Play-Off Final win.
THE MANAGER
Pep Guardiola spent most of his playing career as a defensive midfielder for Barcelona. He won the European Cup in 1992, as well as four successive La Liga titles between 91-94. He had stints with Brescia and AS Roma in Italy as well as Al-Ahli in Qatar before hanging up his boots. As an international player, he earned 47 Spain caps and played at the 1994 FIFA World Cup and at UEFA Euro 2000.
He began coaching with Barcelona B, winning them a third division title. In 2008, he was put in charge of the First Team. In his first season, he won a treble of La Liga, Cope del Rey and Champions League. He became the youngest manager to win the European trophy.
Another league and European double followed in 2011, when he was also named FIFA World Coach of the Year. He left Barca in 2012, after four years and 14 honours.
A short time later, he was named as Bayern Munich boss. He won the Bundesliga title in each of the three years he was in charge. He also won the German Cup twice.
He left Munich in 2016, signing for Man City. By his second season in charge, they had won the Premier League - breaking a record by reaching 100 points in a single season. The following year, he became the first manager to win the domestic treble (league, EFL Cup, FA Cup) in English men's football. To this day, he has three league titles, an FA Cup, four Carabao Cups and two FA Community Shields. He has won Premier League Manager of the Season three times and LMA Manager of the Year twice.
LAST MEETING
It was January 1997 when City last met Brentford in any competition, an FA Cup Third Round tie in front of 12,000 fans at Griffin Park. The First Division Sky Blues beat the Second Division Bees 1-0, thanks to a goal from Nicky Summerbee.
Bees: Dearden; Hutchings, Statham (Omigie 82), Ashby, Bates, McGhee, Asaba, Smith, Forster, Bent, Taylor
City: Margetson; McGoldrick, Brightwell, Lomas, Symons, Ingram, Summerbee, Kernaghan, Heaney, Kinkladze, Rosler