When Brentford spurned their first couple of chances Thomas Frank showed his approval and encouragement with applause. But they kept missing them: by the end of the first half he was burrowing his head into his hands; by the time Yoane Wissa somehow shot into Nathan Aké with the goal at his mercy and 20 minutes remaining he was prostrate, forehead pressed into the turf in supplication. Maybe someone was listening.
Phil Foden had opened the scoring moments earlier, and shortly afterwards he tapped in a second after Savinho’s shot was saved. If at that moment Brentford looked beaten they did not feel it, and with one final heave the pendulum swung: three minutes later Mads Roerslev’s volleyed centre found Wissa all alone on the edge of the six-yard box to pull a goal back, and in stoppage time Christian Nørgaard headed Keane Lewis-Potter’s right-wing cross just beyond the grasp of Stefan Ortega.
Still Brentford did not settle, and it took Aké’s goalline clearance from Bryan Mbeumo’s shot in the final moments to ensure Manchester City ended this brilliantly entertaining encounter with a point. It was the champions’ fourth league game unbeaten, but if the positive results are back that sense of control and superiority is not.
Pep Guardiola admitted afterwards that his squad lacks the “specific kind of player” they needed as Brentford packed the box in the final moments, that “our holding midfielders are not the quality … no, they do not have the skills to defend these types of balls”. “I’m not complaining at all to the players,” Guardiola said (though he certainly appeared to as they left the pitch at the end). “Of course we are sad because we were close to a win and we did not win, but that sometimes happens. At 0-2 we could manage it a little bit better [but] they put six or seven players in the box, and sometimes they are better. They had more players, they are taller, they are stronger in the head. So you have to understand it.”
A month ago Brentford were still unbeaten here in all competitions, but if they lost their aura of invincibility along with successive league games against Nottingham Forest and Arsenal they remain a thrilling, fearsome proposition at home and Liverpool will have seen plenty here to worry them for their visit on Saturday. “The way we played, how brave we were, the aggression, our low block, our counters – I loved everything about our performance,” Frank said. “It’s not as if we defended for 80 minutes then came back in the last 10. I think this is the first time over 90 minutes we’ve managed to go more or less toe to toe with one of the best teams in the world.”
For all their obvious quality City did not often look that here. Brentford started much the stronger, not giving City time to settle in any area of the pitch while locating pockets of space in attack, often down the right where Mbeumo constantly troubled Josko Gvardiol, or in front of Wissa. In the opening 15 minutes Wissa missed two chances and Mbeumo one, Ortega turning his shot round the post.
City’s record with Kyle Walker in their team this season is notably dismal, but there may have been moments here when Guardiola regretted his absence. This may or may not be the end of the road for Walker at City but he did not even embark on the one that led to the Gtech Community Stadium, the 34-year-old left out of the squad as he attempts to engineer a move abroad and with the arrival of the 19‑year‑old Palmeiras defender Vitor Reis, for whom a deal valued at around £30m has apparently been agreed, imminent.
It was not until halfway through the first half that City woke up. Kevin De Bruyne found Matheus Nunes sprinting into space on the counter, but the Portuguese cut inside and into Nathan Collins.
Savinho led another break before belting a shot over the bar from the edge of the area. The last 10 minutes of the half were almost entirely played in Brentford’s defensive third, concluding with a first-time shot by De Bruyne, taken under no pressure, that cleared the goal, the stand behind it, and very nearly the roof above that.
If both teams enjoyed periods of dominance in the first half, in the second they both just roared at each other throughout. Nathan Collins headed a free-kick just wide, Savinho clattered a shot against the post, Erling Haaland sent a free header straight at Mark Flekken from eight yards, and Gvardiol denied Wissa with an excellent last‑ditch block. And so it continued, from one end to the other, until Foden caressed the ball into the far corner from De Bruyne’s wonderful centre to open the scoring and push the game towards its mad, magnificent conclusion.
