Brentford fall to early Haaland goal but make it awkward for Man City

Parking the bus : Picture by @YTJourno

Premier League

Brentford (0) 0

Manchester City (1) 1 Haaland 9

Brentford suffered a first home defeat of the campaign as an early strike from Erling Haaland proved just enough to get the job done.

But the Bees at least made it uncomfortable for Pep Guardiola's men in the second half as they did their best to find a way back.

It was far from a polished performance from the visitors, who looked calm and in charge in a first half they dominated. But they invited hope with a subdued second 45 minutes in which the Bees probed diligently, creating one good opportunity to salvage the afternoon.

Haaland wasted little time in continuing his amazing goalscoring form to put City in charge.

A simple ball lumped forward from Josko Gvardiol left the Norwegian with plenty to do, but he shrugged off the attentions of Sepp van den Berg and Nathan Collins before drilling low past an exposed Caoimhin Kelleher.

Phil Foden - who scored a hat-trick for City here a couple of years ago, and two last year - passed up a great chance to make it 2-0 from a pull-back by Oscar Bobb as the visitors' patient monopoly of the ball promised to be converted into the hard currency of goals.

A superb one-handed save from Kelleher kept out a powerful volley from Tijjani Reijnders before it could ripple the net but in truth, there would be few big chances for the visitors after that.

As long as it stayed 1-0, there was always a chance the Bees could get something from the game and when Igor Thiago raced on after Gvardiol could not get a header to safety, it needed the giant frame of Gianluigi Donnarruma to come out on top in the one v one.

There would be more pressure from Michael Kayode long throws but, in truth, little to get the pulses racing and ultimately not enough to prevent City surviving with the solitary goal cushion.

The win gave Guardiola his 250th in the Premier League - the fastest manager ever to achieve that total. Keith Andrews, his Bees counterpart praised his side's character in making life difficult against "top level opposition.

"We're still building relationships on the pitch and off the pitch. The connection's certainly there with the fans. They're really understanding where we're at," Andrews said. "I'm proud of what they [the players] produced and the levels of intensity."

Bees: (5-3-2) Kelleher - Kayode, Ajer (Carvalho 92), van den Berg, Collins, Hickey - Yarmoliuk (Onyeka 74), Henderson (Janelt 74), Damsgaard (Jensen 67) - Igor Thiago (Ouattara 67), Schade

Citizens: (4-1-4-1) Donnarumma - Matheus Nunes, Ruben Dias, Gvardiol, O'Reilly - Rodri (Gonzalez 22) - Savinho, Reijnders (Silva 76), Foden, Bobb (Doku 76) - Haaland