Man City vs Brentford LIVE Commentary: Guardiola looks to beat Bees for second time this month and overtake Arsenal: kick-off time, team news and how to follow

Manchester City will look to get back to winning ways in their rearranged clash against Brentford tonight, live on talkSPORT.

City were initially destined to face Bees on December 23, but the match was postponed due to their participation in the Club World Cup.

pep guardiolaTheir winning streak came to an end last time after a 1-1 draw with Chelsea, so they will be looking to start another one.

Meanwhile, Thomas Frank's side are struggling for form and have won just two of their last ten league games.

However, those two wins have since come. Ivan Toney returned from his banand the people of west London are starting to look more dangerous.

Man City vs Brentford: title race

City's draw against Chelsea opened the door for their title rivals to swoop in and take advantage.

Arsenal crushed Burnley 5-0 over the weekend, while Liverpool beat Brentford 4-1 away from home.

This results leave City in third placealthough with one less game.

However, it seems as if this first division The race for the title goes to the end.

City is capable of achieving a long winning streak and blowing the rival out of the water.

But Arsenal are now in top form and a much more resilient team than last year, while the Reds have plenty of scoring options.

So it will be a great title race between three fantastic teams.

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• Manchester City have won six of their eight home games against Brentford in all competitions, with the exception of a 2-0 defeat in December 1937 and a 2-1 defeat in this same match last season.
• After beating Man City in this same match 2-1 last season, Brentford are looking to become the second team to win consecutive away league games against a team managed by Pep Guardiola, after Manchester United in 2019-20/2020 -twenty-one.
• After Manchester City won 3-1 in the reverse fixture earlier this month, Manchester City-Brentford could become only the third case of one team beating another twice in the same calendar month in the Premier League. League, and the previous two were achieved by Arsenal (against Bolton in January 2010 and against Wolves in February 2022).

Man City vs Brentford: team news

The Citizens have a couple of injury concerns heading into this game.

Josko Gvardiol is out with an ankle ligament problem and Jack Grealish has a Groin problem detected in the Champions League against Copenhagen.

Bernardo Silva and John Stones should also be fit to start after being left on the bench at the weekend.

Meanwhile, Brentford are left without several key players.

Rico Henry's season ended due to a torn ACL and they have several other long-term absences.

Ethan Pinnock injured his ankle against Wolves and will be out until the end of March.

Josh Dasilva, Kevin Schade, Aaron Hickey and Bryan Mbeumo are also not close to returning.

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• Manchester City are unbeaten in their last 47 midweek games (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday) at the Etihad Stadium in the Premier League (41 wins and six draws) since the 0-1 defeat against Tottenham in May 2010. The Citizens have won 26 of their last 27 such games (D1), including each of their last 12 in a row.
• Brentford have lost seven of their 11 away games in the Premier League this season (W3 D1), as many as they lost away from home in the entire competition last season. The Bees have lost five of their last six away league games, although they won their most recent 2-0 against Wolves.
• Manchester City have only lost one of their last 37 home games in the Premier League (W30 D6), although it was against Brentford in November 2022 (1-2). However, the Citizens have failed to win four of their last seven league games at the Etihad (W3 D4 L0), as many times as they had failed to win in their previous 38 games (W34 D2 L2).

Man City vs Brentford: What has been said?

City manager Guardiola praised Toney and Neal Maupay.

He said: “He (Maupay) is a good football player.

“Sometimes (flash points) happen, but I'm pretty sure the intention is good.

“Toney is very dangerous. He is a master at using his body for the second ball, good finishing, you can link up with him.

“He's one of the best I've seen (at that). A few weeks ago, we conceded the goal, we didn't defend him properly, but he did very well.”

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• Brentford have lost 10 of their last 13 Premier League games (W3), keeping just one clean sheet and conceding 29 goals in this period (2.2 per game). In fact, since the first game of this stage in November (3-0 loss to Liverpool), the Bees have lost more Premier League games than any other team (10).
• Manchester City have fallen behind in 11 of their 24 Premier League games this season; only in 2016-17 (12) and 2019-20 (13) were they behind in more games in a league campaign under Pep Guardiola. However, Ciudadanos has recovered 18 points after losing positions this term; only in 1993-94 (20) did they recover more after falling behind in a single Premier League season.
• Only against Brighton (6) has Manchester City's Phil Foden scored more Premier League goals than against Brentford (5), against whom he scored a hat-trick earlier this month. In Premier League history, there have been only six previous cases where a player has scored in two separate matches against the same opponent within the same calendar month, most recently Marcus Rashford against Leeds in February 2023.
• Ivan Toney has scored in both of his Premier League away games for Brentford this season, goals against Tottenham and Wolves. No Brentford player has ever scored in three consecutive away games in the competition.

Man City vs Brentford: date and how to follow

This Premier League match will take place on Tuesday, February 20.

Kick-off at the Etihad is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

talkSPORT will have exclusive live coverage from Manchester, hosted by Adrian Durham.

Commentary will then come from Sam Matterface and former City manager Stuart Pearce.

talkSPORT.com will also publish a live blog.

To tune in to talkSPORT or talkSPORT 2 via the website, click HERE for the live stream. You can also listen through the talkSPORT appon DAB digital radio, through your smart speaker and on 1089 or 1053 AM.