Squaring up to the only Premier League team to do the double over them last season, Manchester City visit the Gtech Community Stadium for a Monday night fixture with Brentford.
The Citizens cruised past Burnley 3-1 in the midweek round of fixtures, while Thomas Frank's side could not make the most of an early lead against Tottenham Hotspur, losing 3-2 against their London rivals.
Match preview
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The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium briefly morphed into Alexandra Palace during Brentford's all-capital clash with Tottenham on Wednesday evening, where wind-up merchant Neal Maupay irked both Tottenham players and supporters by mimicking James Maddison's dart-throwing celebration after his 15th-minute opener.
However, Maupay and Brentford would end up being served a slice of humble pie in North London, as Destiny Udogie, Richarlison and Brennan Johnson rendered the Frenchman's effort inconsequential before the former gifted Ivan Toney a second-half consolation with 67 minutes on the board.
Another half-hour was not enough for Brentford to make the net bulge a third time, though, and the comical feud between Maddison and Maupay - which quickly spilled over to social media - made more headlines than the engrossing action on the field, much to Ange Postecoglou's dismay.
For Thomas Frank and his red and white crop, defeat to Spurs represented a harsh reality check in the wake of their uplifting 3-2 win over Nottingham Forest on January 20, and the Bees are still dancing with the devil at the wrong end of the table, languishing in 15th with a three-point gap to the drop zone.
An abysmal spell of winter form has seen the Bees prevail in just one of their last nine fixtures across all tournaments, and not since overcoming Chelsea at the end of October have Frank's men recorded a clean sheet in any competition, although only Arsenal have kept them out in a Premier League home game so far in 2023-24.
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While Brentford have not been walking in a winter wonderland, the quintessential second-half-of-season surge from Man City continues to gather pace, as the reigning Premier League and European champions made it eight wins on the trot when Vincent Kompany's Burnley came to town in midweek.
Celebrating his 24th birthday in perfect fashion, Julian Alvarez nodded home the opening goal before making a clever run to meet Kevin De Bruyne's clever free kick, and a classic Rodri curler from 20 yards completed the job before Ameen Al-Dakhil gave the away end something to cheer.
As well as marking their eighth victory on the bounce across all tournaments, the routine beating of Burnley also represented a fourth Premier League maximum in a row for the holders, who remain sandwiched in between Liverpool and Arsenal in second place before their title rivals engage in a titanic Emirates clash on Sunday.
Keeping just one clean sheet from their last 11 Premier League matches is still a minor blot on Pep Guardiola's notebook, but the 53-year-old's side have now struck at least two goals in each of their last six top-flight contests and have not lost in 11 Monday night battles with the Catalonian in charge, winning nine of them.
However, the Bees' sting proved too potent for City to overcome last season, as Brentford came away from the Etihad with a 2-1 victory before a 1-0 West London success on the final day of the campaign, but Guardiola is yet to suffer three-straight losses against the same opponent in his managerial career.
Team News
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Brentford's winter loan arrival Sergio Reguilon will reinforce the hosts' defensive ranks after being unable to face his parent club in midweek, but fellow full-backs Aaron Hickey (thigh) and Rico Henry (knee) remain in the care of the medical team.
Attacking duo Bryan Mbeumo (ankle) and Kevin Schade (groin) will be missing too, while Frank Onyeka (Nigeria) and Yoane Wissa (DR Congo) have qualified for the semi-finals of the Africa Cup of Nations; Saman Ghoddos has also made the final four of the Asian Cup with Iran.
A recognisable XI will no doubt feature Maupay and Toney at the tip of the Brentford attack; the former has found the net in all of the Bees' fixtures in 2024 so far, while Toney is aiming to score for the fifth Premier League home game running.
In contrast, Man City head coach Guardiola is expecting to have every one of his troops available for Monday's trip to London, as Manuel Akanji has now made a full recovery from the knee injury he picked up at the start of January.
As a result, the visiting coach is faced with the best kind of selection dilemmas in all areas of the field and has an unenviable call to make in the final third between Alvarez and Erling Haaland, the latter of whom came on for the final 20 minutes against Burnley and is now fit to start again.
Kyle Walker and Ruben Dias could freshen up the backline after enjoying complete rests in midweek, but Matheus Nunes put in a strong shift against Burnley and has done more than enough to retain his spot in the middle.
Brentford possible starting lineup:
Flekken; Collins, Mee, Pinnock; Roerslev, Janelt, Jensen, Norgaard, Reguilon; Toney, Maupay
Manchester City possible starting lineup:
Ederson; Walker, Dias, Stones, Ake; Nunes, Rodri; Silva, De Bruyne, Foden; Haaland
We say: Brentford 1-3 Manchester City
Even if Brentford can prolong their golden scoring sequence at the Gtech Community Stadium, the Bees have lost 23 points from winning positions in the current campaign, more than any other team in the division.
Faced with the challenge of a fully-fit Man City squad, who have coincidentally won their last three away games in the Premier League despite falling behind in each of them, the Bees' demotion woes should deepen as the Citizens' golden streak continues.
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Ben Knapton
