Manchester City vs Brentford Predictions

• The last six head-to-heads have only produced 12 goals
• Manchester City have won their last 12 league games
• Three of the Citizens’ last four wins over these opponents have been to nil

City in strong early season form

There were many observers who were tipping Arsenal to lift the title at the start of the Premier League campaign who cannot help but be disconcerted by the ominously good start that defending champions Manchester City have made.

The Citizens began with a comfortable 2-0 win over Chelsea before beating Ipswich 4-1 at home. They followed that with a 3-1 success over West Ham and those results came without Rodri, who was given an extended break after winning Euro 2024 with Spain.

Pep Guardiola’s side host Brentford in their first game following the international break and will be hoping to repeat their double over this side last season. The Bees did beat Manchester City home and away in 2022/23 so the hosts will have to be wary.

Bees can keep things tight

Thomas Frank’s men have had a solid start to the new campaign, recording wins over Crystal Palace, Southampton and Colchester in all competitions. They also gave a decent account of themselves away to Liverpool despite going down 2-0.

Talisman Ivan Toney has departed to Saudi Arabia but in his absence Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa have picked up the slack, netting five goals between them already this term.

The visitors brought in Sepp van den Berg and Fabio Carvalho from Liverpool over the summer, alongside Igor Thiago from Club Brugge. However the latter is out with a knee injury, meaning that this will not be a drastically different team to the one Brentford have been putting out for the last few seasons.

They have managed to minimise the damage against Manchester City effectively in recent meetings, there have only been 12 goals in the last six head-to-heads between these two.

Frank knows how to set up a team to avoid a heavy defeat and he can do so again here. Side with under 3.5 goals in a home win with the Citizens unlikely to blow a robust Brentford team away.

De Bruyne to shine

Correct score backers should note that, of the four wins City have managed against these opponents from those six games, three of them have been to nil and a 3-0 scoreline for the hosts is fancied.

Only Erling Haaland has had more shots than Kevin De Bruyne for City this season and the Belgian is likely to be even more motivated following the midweek disappointment with his national team. Side with the midfielder to get on the scoresheet in this one.