Brentford welcome Manchester City to the Gtech on Monday still smiling over the fact that they were the only team to do the double over City last time out. Nick Bruzon previews.
Monday night sees the toughest fixture in the Premier League calendar. A game where last season’s record-breaking goal scorer is likely to continue his resurgence and pick up where he, and the team, left off. Toughest, for the visitors that is. Record-breaking for the Bees c/o Ivan Toney.
Brentford welcome Manchester City to the Gtech still smiling over the fact that they were the only team to do the double over City last time out. Six points out of a possible six earned – the League Champions left empty-handed. Ivan’s late, late winner wrapping up a quite incredible victory at the Ethiad just before the World Cup. Ethan Pinnock rising to the challenge in the reverse fixture as he closed out the season with the only goal of the game back in May.
That was a game played with the Bees missing the injured Ivan Toney. He’s back and will be chomping at the bit to make it three in a row for The Bees. His partnership with Neal Maupay, perhaps unexpected in some quarters with the thought that we couldn’t fit both into the team, has been revelatory. An absolute stroke of tactical genius from Thomas Frank.
The dynamic duo grabbed a goal apiece in the home defeat of Nottingham Forest then repeated the feat at Spurs on Wednesday night. Whilst that ended in a 3-2 reverse, the manner of their link-up play and the chances created gave huge cause for excitement. Moreso now that the transfer window has creaked shut ( a deadline day so quiet that at one point it looked like it was going to be replaced by a repeat of Mrs Brown’s Boys) with the aforementioned record breaker still a Bee.
The only change I can see Thomas making will be to welcome Sergio Reguilon into the team at left wing back. KLP had a wonderful game on Wednesday but will serve the Bees so much better if allowed to play higher up the pitch and freed, relatively, of defensive duty.
That’s not to say that the Bees won’t, to a man, be on red alert. Erling Haaland made his first appearance in weeks during a routine defeat of divisional whipping boys, Burnley. Julian Alvarez grabbed a brace in that one and this is before you look to the laser-sharp delivery of the fit-again Kevin De Bruyne, Rodri, Phil Foden, Bernardo Silva. The list goes on. The threat comes from every angle.
With City five points behind Liverpool at present (albeit with the home fixture against the Bees as their forthcoming ‘game in hand’ ) this is one they will be going all out to win. Forget any ‘revenge’ for last season’s double defeat. I have no doubt that will be an irrelevance to the brilliant mind of Pep Guardiola. His only focus will be on the present.
Whilst the Bees can enjoy the moment and the statistical superiority, this one is all about what happens on Monday night. The past is a foreign land. Nice to visit every once in a while, but we can only look forward.
The battle of Haaland and Alvarez versus Maupay and Toney is the one that the headline writers will be looking to that those with a taste for goals will be salivating over. For me, it’s all about the midfield. If Mathias Jensen can do what he does and Christian Norgaard picks up where he left off against Spurs then maybe, just maybe, Brentford could make it three in a row…
