Not at their best but patient Manchester City showed why they are champions against Brentford
Foden scores for City against Brentford
By Sam Lee Dec 30, 2021 52
It was the first time Pep Guardiola had smiled for a good 25 minutes, probably more. Aymeric Laporte rose to head in Kevin De Bruyne’s free kick two minutes from time and the game was, at long last, safe.
Guardiola had worn the look of a man trying to tough out a conference call while battling the biggest hangover of all time.
Such was the difficulty and jeopardy of the match, he looked sea sick. When Laporte headed in, it was as if the emergency coffee had arrived, the waves had abated. He exchanged knowing looks with his staff. Manchester City could breathe.
Except they couldn’t just yet. The video referee offered the latest reminder that those ultra marginal offsides are never going away, and Guardiola smiled ruefully. He found it in himself to wink at some Brentford fans, who replied by calling him a w****r. He stood and stared, inviting a bit more.
His team were still in a battle for another five long minutes. As much of a battle as it can be when you’ve got 76 per cent possession, anyway.
This was the night after Liverpool had lost at Leicester. The night when Chelsea had dropped points in the final seconds. Hang on here and City could go eight points clear.
They deserved to, but you don’t always get what you deserve, do you? Brentford had two shots on target all night but the threat always lingered. The threat of Murphy’s Law, perhaps, but on nights like these, in title races like these, it’s enough to set you on edge.
“If you attack quick they will attack quicker,” as Guardiola said afterwards. The more you push, the more you’ll suffer. It was a night to keep the ball.
City didn’t always do it, though. They were far from their flowing best, especially in the first half, giving away sloppy passes and inviting counter-attacks from a Brentford side hampered by injuries but cheered on by their raucous supporters. Still, they had 81 per cent of the ball in the first 45 minutes.
In the second half they looked more assured, mainly due to their work when they lost the ball — fairly often by their standards. Whenever Fernandinho or De Bruyne failed with a killer pass, say, or Gabriel Jesus and Jack Grealish were tackled, Brentford had their chance to break. But City had three or four men in the vicinity to jump in and win it back, keeping the Bees as far away from Ederson’s goal as possible.
Just how Guardiola likes it. “Boring, boring City,” the Brentford fans sang, but it’s what the situation demanded.
“We played the game in this stadium, against this team, the way it must be played,” Guardiola reflected. “A lot of patience, don’t let them run, concede few set-pieces, corners, throw-ins, free kicks, move left right right, left left right.”
Don’t concede free kicks?
“They are the best team in the Premier League from set-pieces, we had few unnecessary fouls, the second half was much, much better.”
One of those corners nearly led to an early Brentford opener, but after the ball looped over Ederson and Nathan Ake it was headed away, on the line, by Joao Cancelo. The crowd were on their feet and City knew exactly the kind of situations they had to avoid.
And that almost certainly explains why he didn’t make any substitutions as the match wore on; the game was, as far as possible, under control. He is an attacking coach through and through but he won’t bring on a substitute to try to make it 2-0 when there is a threat of making it 1-1.
That threat always lingered because Brentford did not make it easy. Xavi once summed up Guardiola’s genius by saying that his Barcelona team always had a plan even for throw-ins, but on Wednesday his City side could barely find a free man whenever they had the ball in their hands.
Every time, Brentford pushed and squeezed, urged on by their coach Thomas Frank, who on more than one occasion in the early stages had to remind Mads Roerslev to push right up onto Ake at goal kicks, to deprive City of space to play.
Normally they relish that, because they can play through you, but it wasn’t always that way in the first half. And when City’s attacks broke down, Brentford’s started.
“I know people like these types of games but for us it’s not good,” Guardiola insists.
It would be foolish to dwell on City’s absent players on a night when Brentford missed so many of theirs, but with no Ilkay Gundogan (on the bench) and no Rodri (absent) Guardiola was without two of his more assured men in possession, the ones you need on nights like this.
So they made do with Fernandinho and De Bruyne. Not bad. The Brazilian patrolled the midfield, winning headers, winding up opponents and putting a boot in (and getting a boot back). De Bruyne probed like De Bruyne does.
Less than a minute after Cancelo headed Brentford’s best chance off the line, City worked the ball out to the left, where Grealish, Ake, Bernardo Silva and Phil Foden tried to make something work. It bobbled into Bernardo’s path and he switched the play to Jesus.
Cancelo and De Bruyne ran ahead of him and combined to get the Belgian into that little pocket of space on the right-hand corner of the box that he likes so much. He swung the ball in, Foden met it and the crowd, still reflecting on their big chance, fell silent.
“That’s why we’re champions,” the City end roared. It is indeed. Everything that came after shows why they might do it again.
