Brentford v Manchester City – The Opposition

Manchester City travel to the Brentford Community Stadium to face Premier League debutants Brentford in their final game of a very successful 2021. City currently lead the able by six points following Liverpool’s defeat at Leicester on Tuesday night and will go into 2022 top of the pile.

Brentford are making their first appearance in the Premier League after winning promotion from the Championship last season via the play-offs. The Bees finished third in the table and beat Bournemouth and Swansea to reach the top-flight.

Form

Brentford have enjoyed a decent first half of the season, having won 5 of their 17 games so far. They have stuttered in recent matches, losing two of their last five, but they haven’t lost at home in the league since Norwich beat them 2-1 at the beginning of November.

That loss was their fourth at home, having previously lost to Brighton, Chelsea and Leicester at home. However, they beat Arsenal 2-0 on the opening day of the season and held Liverpool to a 3-3 draw in September.

Their 1-0 win over Everton at the end of November was their first home league victory since beating Arsenal, and they followed that up with a 2-1 win over Watford in early December.

Danger Men

Ivan Toney is Brentford’s top scorer with 4 Premier League goals and 1 goal in the League Cup. From 17 matches, he has attempted 33 shots, which gives him a goal conversion rate of just 15%. Bryan Mbeumo has the same number of shots from 18 league and cup matches, but with 4 goals, his conversion rate is 12%. Marcus Forss appears to be a bigger danger for the blues. Having played just 10 matches, he has had 9 attempts on goal, 5 of which have hit the back of the net, giving him a goal conversion rate of an impressive 56%.

Saman Ghoddos leads the assist chart with 4 from 13 matches, and with 231 completed passes from 304 attempts, his pass accuracy stands at 76%. However, if he plays, Mathias Jensen could be a threat to the blues. From 14 matches played, Jenson has created the most chances (21), and has completed 384 passes from 479 attempts, meaning a pass accuracy of 80%, the highest from Brentford’s first team regulars.

Who’s the Boss?

Thomas Frank is the man in charge at Brentford. The Dane joined Brentford in 2016 as assistant manager before being given the top job in 2018. He guided the Bees to successive play-off finals, winning the second against Swansea last summer.

Frank has presided over 167 matches, winning 78 and losing 49, giving him a win percentage of 47%.

Last Time Out

The two teams last met in the FA Cup in January 1997, 18 years since the Third Division Bees stung City at the same stage of the competition. However, there would be no repeat of that shock result as a second half goal from Nicky Summerbee gave the blues a 1-0 win.