Manchester City survived a (very) early scare against Brentford to win 2-1 at the Etihad on Saturday afternoon.
Yoane Wissa scored for Brentford after only 22 seconds — the fastest goal any defending champion has conceded in Premier League history — but Erling Haaland (of course) turned the game in City’s favour with two first-half goals to take his seasonal total to nine.
There were no more goals after the break but Rodri got his first minutes of the season and, with a big Champions League game against Inter coming up this week, that may be the most pleasing part of the day for Pep Guardiola.
Mark Critchley breaks down some of the key talking points from the match.
Erling Haaland is inevitable
The most ominous thing about Erling Haaland at the moment is that he is both playing brilliantly and the bounces are also falling his way.
Like the touch off Nathan Collins, from Kevin De Bruyne’s pass, that sent the ball into his path for his first. Or the deflection off Nathan Pinnock, that helped take his shot on the turn past goalkeeper Mark Flekken.
Or his own little bounce into Pinnock, nudging the Brentford centre-half with his backside as Ederson’s ball over the top floated through, which helped put him through one-on-one.
Haaland had managed just one goal in three games against Brentford before today — mediocre by his standards. His blank in the 2-1 defeat here in November 2022 led to Ben Mee giving one of the more detailed breakdowns of how to play against him in the public domain on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football.
(Naomi Baker/Getty Images)
But as Mee pointed out at the time, and as his Brentford team-mates were reminded here, you can do your level best and still be beaten by the purest goalscorer of his generation.
The third consecutive hat-trick did not come but it is now nine goals in four games — three more than he had managed by the same stage of his phenomenal, record-breaking debut season. At this rate, you would not bet against another.
Another slow start from City
When was the last time a visiting side at the Etihad was not only 1-0 up after 10 minutes but also enjoying almost three-quarters of the ball?
After an international break full of heady nostalgia for a time before Pep Guardiola ‘broke football’, City’s start to this game was their own little #Barclaysmen tribute, to a time when they were far more likely to be played off their own park.
Brentford were the last visitors to win here, of course — that 2-1 victory in November 2022 — and looked genuinely capable of another unlikely three points while leading, but particularly during those opening stages.
Their aggression in and out of possession was too much for City to live with, albeit briefly, and Wissa’s 22-second goal followed Sammy Szmodics’ seventh-minute opener for Ipswich Town last month.
Wissa gives Brentford a shock lead… or was it? (Oli Scarff/AFP via Getty Images)
Should these slow starts be something of a worry? It’s not unknown for City to be sluggish out the traps or concede sloppily, particularly against attacks as effective in transition as Brentford’s, but it would be far more concerning if the champions could not be trusted to respond. And typically, they did.
Welcome back Rodri
While Wissa was down receiving treatment at the end of the first half, once City were ahead, a lull inside the Etihad was broken by a lone shout of “Yes, Rodri!”
One supporter had spotted the best holding midfielder in the world — one of the leading contenders for this year’s Ballon d’Or — rising out of his seat to make his first jog down the Etihad touchline of the season. A ripple of applause followed once others caught on.
Rodri’s first minutes of the season would follow too, on as a half-time substitute to add the control that City had sorely missed in the early stages. Brentford had threatened throughout the first half, they had just one late shot in the second despite only being a goal down.
As well as the likes of Mateo Kovacic and Rico Lewis have done in his absence, that is the difference Rodri makes and the difference he will make for City over the coming weeks and months now that he is fit again.
(Neal Simpson/Sportsphoto/Allstar via Getty Images)
Thanks largely to City’s poor record without him playing last season, there was a theory among their title rivals that if the 28-year-old could just miss a game here or there, that would close the margins.
But this time around, he returns to a City side with 12 points from a possible 12. And you imagine one of the world’s best will only make them better from here on in too.
What did Pep Guardiola say?
We will bring you this after he has spoken at the post-match press conference.
What next for Manchester City?
Wednesday, September 18: Inter Milan (H), Champions League, 8pm BST, 3pm ET
Sunday, September 22: Arsenal (H), Premier League, 4.30pm BST, 11.30am ET
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(Header photo: Getty Images)
