City do enough to close gap as serial winner Pep will know value of victory

AS shot after shot failed to burst the net, Pep Guardiola's blood pressure went up and up.

- SIMON BAJKOWSKI

The City manager looked close to bringing himself on in the second half as his disgust for the way the game was going kept on growing.

That did not stop after Erling Haaland's 71st-minute strike broke the deadlock with City's 21st shot of the night, but did at least mean he could rage himself to sleep knowing they were above Arsenal and one point off Liverpool.

Brentford are never the easiest of opponents and have the potential to make any game sticky.

So it proved last night when their defending was so good and so deep that while they gave up two-thirds of the pitch it left City with Manu Akanji and Ruben Dias as their main playmakers as everyone else was squeezed up the pitch.

That brought a few decent shots to test Mark Flekken, yet every minute the ball was kept away from City's creative players was a victory for the visitors.

As the first half ticked on and Brentford offered more threat on the rare times they could counter than City did dominating possession, frustration grew.

Keep calm and carry on was Pep Guardiola's message to the media ahead of the game as he baulked at the suggestion of a City setback dropping points at home to Chelsea.

And that was his message to fans as he made a point of deliberately telling the crowd to chill out when they reacted impatiently to Ederson holding on to the ball.

Their reaction was instinctive enough, agitating for the team to get going in game that Brentford were doing their best to drag to a traffic jam on the edge of their box.