Winning the Premier League is all about getting the basics right and then finding moments of inspiration from your talented players.
And as Manchester City extended their lead at the top to 12 points ahead of Liverpool’s clash with Leicester tomorrow night, they got both right.
Just as it was in the encounter in west London in December, this was a bruising, tight encounter against hard-working, well-organised opponents.
But the breakthrough came down to Raheem Sterling doing what he does best, taking the direct option, and then Riyad Mahrez making no mistake from the resulting penalty.
Kevin De Bruyne made sure with a second goal from a mistake by Bees keeper David Raya in the second half, but this was merely a competent, professional display from the Blues, with no frills and few thrills.
It was a moment of sheer pace from Sterling that finally broke Brentford’s resistance, which had been aided by moments of sloppiness and inaccuracy from the Blues in the opening 45 minutes.
The winger simply knocked the ball towards the by-line and set off after it, nothing fancy.
Jack Grealish has been the preferred option on the left, and he provides a more subtle approach - but sometimes there is no substitute for turning on the after-burners.
The winger was also smart, checking his run ever-so-slightly as Mads Roerslev converged on him tempting the lunge for the ball which only succeeded in sweeping Sterling off his feet.
Until Mahrez took over duties, City getting a penalty barely rated as a goalscoring chance, so patchy was their record.
Mahrez has since become City’s go-to man, having been discarded after his dreadful spot-kick that stopped the Blues from ending their long-term duck at Anfield in 2018.
They have cycled through just about every other option with abysmal results, and finally wound up back at the Algeria ace.
He missed one for his country as they crashed out of the African Nations Cup with defeat by Ivory Coast last month, but has bounced back from that with unsaveable penalties in successive games.
Fulham keeper Paolo Gazzaniga guessed the right way on Saturday, guessing Mahrez would go for his favourite spot, high to the keeper’s left, but it was so well struck that he had no hope of stopping it.
This time, with more resting on the outcome, and the stadium settling to a hush as he took an age to weigh up what he was going to do, Mahrez decided to go the other way.
Keeper David Raya went completely the wrong way but it would have made little difference had he got it right, so accurate into the top corner was Mahrez’s kick.
That was his seventh successful penalty on the bounce for the Blues, with that awful Anfield miss his only black mark.
That took him to 16 for the season, and he is currently running away with the club’s “top goalscorer” tag, with no-one else yet in double figures.
It was a big moment, as Brentford had proved as stubborn, organised and resistant as Pep Guardiola had predicted.
Chances had been rare until Sterling’s pacy intervention, the best being Aymeric Laporte’s side-foot half-volley that was an inc wide of the post, after fellow centre back Ruben Dias had cleverly headed Kevin De Bruyne’s free kick to him in space.
Sterling had also seen a spectacular scissor-kick flash wide, after the tireless Phil Foden had whipped a pass to him on the edge of the six-yard box.
But the Bees, for all their solid work at the back, were forever alert to seizing chances at the other end.
And when Joao Cancelo unwisely floated a pass across the field to Stones, playing at right back, they sensed an opportunity.
The England man slipped slightly as he controlled the high pass and when Saman Ghoddos took the ball, Ederson bravely took a blow to the head as he saved the initial effort and then scrambled to try to block again.
The Brazil goalkeeper was not the only one to take a battering in a physical game, Stones being heavily winded as he contested an aerial challenge with Ethan Pinnock.
The Bees opened up the game a little more after the break as they sought an equaliser, a reindeer to the Blues that the result was in jeopardy with a one-goal lead.
Cancelo did his best to rectify that, weaving past three players in a dart from the left flank, only for his finish to lack the quality of the approach - otherwise it would have been a goal of the season contender.
The need to change it up was not lost on Guardiola, who turned to Jack Grealish, again at the centre of attention this week after footage of him looking a little worse or wear outside a Manchester bar, emerged.
Guardiola made light of that incident, saying he was only annoyed because no-one invited him.
No-one will care what Grealish does in his own time if he is performing on the field, but fingers will get pointed when he isn’t.
The City fans delivered their verdict, singing “Jackie’s on the p***” as he came on - they like a colourful character, as the homage still paid to the under-performing Mario Balotelli shows.
But it was Brentford keeper Raya who came up with the decisive moment, on 69 minutes.
He inexplicably mis-kicked straight to Sterling, who was a little startled by the unexpected opportunity.
Raya redeemed himself momentarily by saving well from Sterling, but the ball fell for De Bruyne to drill into the empty net.
The rest of it was a breeze for the Blues.
Stones acquitted himself well enough at right back despite his unlucky slip - whether it was a trial run for next Tuesday’s Champions League game at Sporting Lisbon, or a nod to Brentford’s height at setpieces, or maybe a bit of both, remains to be seen.
Walker will be suspended for that one, and he sat this one out on the bench.
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