-Credit:Reach Publishing Services Limited
It might not have looked that way with eight minutes to go, but a game as open and entertaining as this one was always likely to suit Brentford more than it was Manchester City.
It became a game dominated by transitions. Neither side could exert control or dominate territory, so it became open. When one side lost the ball the other pounced, and vice versa.
The stats bear it out. Brentford finished with 18 shots to City’s 21. Both teams racked up an xG of more than two, although Brentford edged that figure. They probably deserved something out of the game.
READ MORE: Marcus Rashford sends clear message to Ruben Amorim amid Man United transfer links
READ MORE: Marcus Rashford Manchester United transfer exit in doubt as player fails medical
This kind of game would have been what Brentford wanted. City seemed unable to find a different way to play, so just accepted it and went hell for leather with the Bees.
To the naked eye, this was City’s slickest attacking display of recent weeks, even if they had just scored 12 goals in two games. But there’s a reason that Pep Guardiola doesn’t want his team to play like this. He wants control and knows his team isn’t built to run forward and run back.
They looked to have got the better of it at 2-0 up after 81 minutes. They had countered with class at times and Phil Foden had rediscovered his scoring touch, taking both goals well to prise the game open and seemingly keep City on track. But just as the momentum was building, the rug was pulled from under them.
Brentford kept coming and scored from two crosses. Neither was defended particularly well. In truth, Thomas Frank’s energetic side had posed City problems throughout the contest. The surprise was it took them so long to score.
When an open game broke out approaching the midway point of the first half, City leaned into it. Their best chances came from turnovers rather than prolonged spells of possession and build-up.
They had the players to thrive in this environment. Kevin De Bruyne was enjoying himself with the kind of freedom he hadn’t had for a while, and Matheus Nunes and Savinho carried the ball into dangerous territory.
Nunes was picked as a stand-in right back, with Kyle Walker again absent, because Guardiola wanted to fill the middle with bodies and felt Nunes would be better at inverting into central areas than Rico Lewis. But as the game progressed, Nunes’ running power down the right became more of an asset.
Nunes charged clear of Keane Lewis-Potter in one early salvo to get City on the attack, and he was happy to carry the ball forward down that flank. He was signed up for his dribbling ability, and this role allowed him to show it off.
He was involved in City’s slickest move of the first half. He wriggled away from a challenge before playing a pass infield to Foden. That immediately opened the pitch up, and Foden moved it on to De Bruyne, but Nunes had not stopped running, and when De Bruyne’s perfectly weighted ball found him, he was in on goal.
Nunes had the pace to stay clear, but his composure let him down. He had Erling Haaland in the area, and the decision was to shoot on his right foot or try to play a square ball. Instead, Nunes tried to turn onto his weaker foot and into traffic. The chance was gone.
From his position, Nunes should clearly have taken the shot, but until then, this work had been positive. It was typical of the kind of move City were stringing together.
Early in the second half, Savinho picked up the ball and drove 25 yards towards goal, taking the direct route and gliding past Mads Roerslev before smashing a left-footed shot against the post
It made for an open and entertaining game, but you weren’t quite sure who would get the first goal. That is a problem for City, because when they are at their dominant best they strangle the opposition. Here, they were powerless to halt Brentford’s charge up the pitch, so they fought fire with fire. And they got burned.
Savinho contributed to both goals, but as Guardiola charged onto the pitch at full-time, he pulled the Brazilian aside for one of these famous one-on-one coaching clinics straight after the game. Josko Gvardiol had already received the same treatment. Many more could expect similar in the sanctuary of the dressing room.
It had been a brilliant, bonkers game. But that’s not City, and Guardiola knows it.