Follow live coverage as Brentford face Manchester City today in the Premier League. Another top-flight season will be covered in full right here with The Independent, as reigning champions Manchester City look to make it an unprecedented five titles in a row come the end of 2024/25.
The likes of Arsenal and Liverpool will be chasing Pep Guardiola's side, but just as fascinating will be the race for Champions League places, with more teams than ever before having designs on top-four finishes. Chelsea remain big-spending, Manchester United's latest rebuild continues and both Tottenham and Newcastle will expect improvements this year - yet it was Aston Villa who snared fourth last term.
Meanwhile, it's Southampton, Leicester City and Ipswich Town who made it back to the elite after promotion last year and each will have hope they can make it more than a one-year stay. Follow the latest live action from the Premier League below:
Brentford FC 0 - 0 Manchester City FC
Brentford vs Manchester City
19:37A lovely through ball from De Bruyne is met by Foden, who was making a run towards the box. But Jensen does well to clear and give City an early corner. However, De Bruyne's delivery is cleared rather comfortably by the Brentford defence.
Brentford vs Manchester City
19:35Manchester City are big favourites to win this match with Opta's Live Win Probability model showing a strong 56.6% probability of a win for the visitors and only 21.5% for Brentford. Nunes is playing at right-back for City. The start to this game has not been as eventful as the reverse fixture, but we can expect it to get intense.
Brentford vs Manchester City
19:33KICK-OFF! After a minute of applause for former Manchester City player and manager Tony Book, who has passed away aged 90, we are underway in this clash at the Gtech Community Stadium as City get the ball rolling. Wissa gave the Bees the lead after just 22 seconds in the reverse fixture. It would be too much to expect a start today as exciting as that one. But you never know, right? Let’s see how this goes!
Brentford vs Manchester City
19:30The teams are making their way out to the pitch, the managers and players are ready, and so are the fans who have turned up in huge numbers for this big clash. Brentford have won two of these two sides’ last five fixtures - all in the Premier League - but Manchester City have won the last two, including a 2-1 win at the Etihad Stadium earlier this season.
Brentford vs Manchester City
19:25City have made eight changes from the FA Cup win over Salford. However, there is only one change from the league win over West Ham last time out, as Nunes replaces Lewis in defence. Ake and Savinho are both starting tonight. McAtee, last weekend's hat-trick hero against Salford, is on the bench along with Doku, who scored a brace in that game.
Brentford vs Manchester City
19:20Brentford have rung in the changes, making six of them for this game from the XI that started against Plymouth Argyle in the FA Cup, but almost the same XI that started against Southampton. Lewis-Potter starts in place of Henry, who is part of a Premier League matchday squad for the first time in over a year. Norgaard is back and so is Janelt, who replaces Schade. Mbuemo and Wissa will start up front.
Brentford vs Manchester City
19:20MANCHESTER CITY (3-2-4-1): Stefan Ortega; Manuel Akanji, Nathan Ake, Josko Gvardiol; Mateo Kovacic, Matheus Nunes; Savinho, Bernardo Silva, Kevin De Bruyne, Phil Foden; Erling Haaland.
Brentford vs Manchester City
19:20MANCHESTER CITY SUBS: Jack Grealish, Jeremy Doku, Ilkay Gundogan, Ederson, Jahmai Simpson-Pusey, Divin Mubama, Nico O'Reilly, Rico Lewis, James McAtee.
Brentford vs Manchester City
19:15BRENTFORD SUBS: Rico Henry, Hakon Valdimarsson, Kevin Schade, Fabio Carvalho, Ben Mee, Yehor Yarmoliuk, Paris Maghoma, Yunus Konak, Kim Ji-Soo.
Brentford vs Manchester City
19:15BRENTFORD (4-3-3): Mark Flekken; Keane Lewis-Potter, Sepp van den Berg, Nathan Collins, Mads Roerslev; Vitaly Janelt, Mathias Jensen, Christian Norgaard; Mikkel Damsgaard, Yoane Wissa, Bryan Mbeumo.
Brentford vs Manchester City
19:10Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City finally have some momentum on their side. After a run which saw them winning only one out of 13 games across competitions, the reigning champions have won three in a row, including back-to-back league victories against Leicester City and West Ham United, before hammering Salford City 8-0 in the FA Cup over the weekend. Five different players scored for Manchester City in that game, including Jeremy Doku and Jack Grealish. Scoring goals has not been a big issue for City even during the winless run as they have scored in each of their last seven league games. A 4-1 win over West Ham in their previous league game kept City in sixth place on the table, but only two points off the Champions League places. While challenging for the title seems quite far-fetched at the moment, Manchester City are very much in the top-4 battle and cannot now afford another slump in form, especially with a challenging run of fixtures on the horizon. Having rested most of his regular starters in the Salford victory, Guardiola has pretty much a fresh squad to pick from for this game against Brentford, barring the likes of Ruben Dias and John Stones, who are still out of contention. Much of the talk in the build-up to this game has been around Kyle Walker’s future after Guardiola confirmed that his star right-back had asked for a transfer away from the club, and Walker has not travelled with the squad for this game.
Brentford vs Manchester City
19:04Being on the wrong end of one of the biggest upsets of the latest round of FA Cup fixtures is the last thing Brentford manager Thomas Frank would have wanted just before hosting Manchester City, despite the four-time defending champions having a poor season themselves. The Bees’ 1-0 loss to Plymouth Argyle over the weekend was their third straight defeat at the Gtech across competitions, thus making them vulnerable hosts of late after having the best home record for any team in the Premier League for the better part of the season so far. Goals are almost guaranteed when Brentford play, but even they have failed to score in three of their last five games. However, that run also includes a 5-0 away win over Southampton the last time out in the Premier League, which was their first away league win of the season. That victory meant that Brentford are currently 11th in the league, but only three ahead of Tottenham Hotspur and four ahead of Manchester United and West Ham United. With Liverpool and Spurs set to be two of their next three opponents after Manchester City, a good result against the champions is important. Rico Henry is set for his first Premier League appearance in over a year, while Ben Mee, Vitaly Janelt, and Christian Norgaard are also available.
Brentford vs Manchester City
19:04After an eventful FA Cup weekend, we’re back with some midweek Premier League action. Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the Premier League clash between Brentford and Manchester City at the Gtech Community Stadium.
Brentford vs Manchester City
19:00Lineups are announced and players are warming up.
Brentford vs Manchester City
17:30Follow all the goals and latest action from the Premier League here with The Independent. Team news and line-ups coming up shortly…
