We’re back to take our place in the table and not even Arsenal cacn stop us this time’: Phil foden send strong transfer message to Arsenal fans after scoring hattrick against Brentford last night
Manchester City have leapfrogged Arsenal and moved within two points of Premier League leaders Liverpool – with a game in hand – after securing a 3-1 victory over Brentford courtesy of a Phil Foden hat-trick.
The hosts took the lead at the Community Stadium on Monday night but gave up an avalanche of first-half chances, with goalkeeper Mark Flekken setting a club record for saves in a match.
On the stroke of half-time, Foden finally found an equaliser in somewhat fortuitous fashion before quick-fire goals after the restart put the game to bed – and put the rest of their title rivals on notice.
The reigning champions made a strong start to the match with Julian Alvarez twice stinging the palms of Flekken, who had to make a number of saves as sky blue shirts swarmed the penalty area virtually from the first minute.
Incredibly, it was the Dutch goalkeeper who had an impact at the other end of the pitch with a booming goal-kick cunningly left by Ivan Toney which allowed Neal Maupay to race through on goal for a one-on-one.
He kept his cool and slotted into the bottom corner, with Flekken picking up the assist as City’s players claimed offside – though you cannot, of course, be offside from a goal kick.
City upped their intensity even more after falling behind and should have levelled almost immediately when the returning Erling Haaland was played clean through, but again Flekken was on hand to race out and block the effort.
Josko Gvardiol had two excellent opportunities to score, with one well saved and the other racing past the far post, but Brentford’s physicality was started to cause City problems – and get under their skin.
A curling cross from Sergio Reguilon nearly caught out Ederson before a misjudged clearance from the Brazilian left his goal gaping, but the Brentford left-back saw his effort blocked by Ruben Dias.
City continued to lay siege to the Brentford goal, with Flekken keeping them at bay as much through luck as judgement at this point after almost spilling a shot from Kevin De Bruyne, and finally their pressure paid off on the stroke of half-time.
A tame cross to no-one was headed straight up by Ethan Pinnock and Foden was on hand to pick up the scraps and fire in from close range. With their 10th shot on target, City finally had their goal.
That pattern of play continued in the second half, with Brentford continuing to look dangerous on the break, though City did not have to wait long to get their noses in front after the restart and again it was Foden who did the damage.
More concerted pressure from the visitors presented De Bruyne with time to line up a cross and he exploited an uneven back-line to plant the ball on Foden’s head, with Flekken unable to keep the ball out despite getting his hand to it.
Brentford were not going to simply fade away, though, and they nearly equalised when a volley from Toney rebounded into the path of Christian Norgaard but his goal-bound effort was blocked by Dias.
Set-pieces were also causing City problems, with a Norgaard flick flying past the far post before another goal-bound effort, this time from Maupay, forced another last-ditch block. Toney, too, had a good chance to test Ederson but volleyed high over the bar.
Brentford were made to pay soon after with Foden applying the killer blow again; a neat lay-off from Haaland saw the England international burst into the box, leaving red and white shirts eating dust, and he fizzed a low, left-footed effort in at the near post to complete his hat-trick.
City – who ended the game with 72% possession and 25 shots – saw out the rest of the contest with relative ease, save for one more rush of blood to the head from Ederson, and are now in striking distance of league leaders Liverpool with a game in hand.
