Manchester City – Brentford: The Defending Champions Comfortably Return To Winning Ways (2-0)

League leaders Manchester City hosted promoted Brentford in what could have proved to be a crucial fixture in both sides’ campaigns. The hosts, the clear favourites for this match, eased to a 2-0 victory, stretching their lead at the top of the table once again.

Tactical analysis and match report by Neel Shelat.

Nine points clear at the top of the table, Manchester City were blitzing the Premier League once again after it initially looked like they would be involved in a close title race with Liverpool and Chelsea. The latter had completely fallen away, but Liverpool could cut the gap to six points by winning their game in hand, and given the fact that they won all their recent games without star forwards Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mané, they certainly were still in the picture. City’s long winning streak ended last time out in the 1-1 draw at Southampton, and they could not afford too many more slip-ups now.

At the other end of the table, a bright start to the season had left Brentford a fair way ahead of the relegation zone in fourteenth place. However, no points from their last four league matches was a cause for concern, and as the sides at the bottom of the table such as Newcastle United and Burnley have started to pick up points, Brentford need to start doing so themselves as well to avoid getting sucked into the battle against the drop.

Pep Guardiola always has the ability to mix up his team selections, and that was the case again as regular center-back John Stones started on the right of the defense . . .