Man City vs Brentford LIVE commentary: Guardiola seeks to beat Bees for second time this month and leapfrog Arsenal – kick-off time, team news and how to follow

Manchester City will look to return to winning ways in their rearranged clash against Brentford tonight, live on talkSPORT.

City were initially meant to face the Bees on December 23, but the match was postponed due to their participation in the Club World Cup.

Erling Haaland and co were frustrated by the BluesCredit: Getty

Pep Guardiola's winning streak came to an end last time out following a 1-1 draw with Chelsea, so they will be looking to start another one.

Meanwhile, Thomas Frank's side are struggling for form and have won just two of their last ten league games.

However, those two wins have come since Ivan Toney returned from his ban, and the west Londoners are starting to look more dangerous.

Man City vs Brentford: Title race

City's draw against Chelsea opened the door for their title rivals to swoop in and take advantage.

Arsenal smashed Burnley 5-0 over the weekend while Liverpool beat Brentford 4-1 away from home.

These results leave City in third, albeit with a game in hand.

However, it does appear as if this Premier League title race is going all the way.

City are capable of putting together a long winning run and blowing the opposition out of the water.

But Arsenal are now hitting form and are a much more resilient team than last year, while the Reds boast so many goalscoring options.

So, it's going to be a great title race between three fantastic sides.

The top of the table is very tight Manchester City have won six of their eight home games against Brentford in all competitions, with the exceptions being a 2-0 defeat in December 1937, and a 2-1 loss in this exact fixture last season. Having beaten Man City in this exact fixture 2-1 last season, Brentford are looking to become just the second team to win consecutive away league games against a side managed by Pep Guardiola, after Manchester United in 2019-20/2020-21. After Manchester City won 3-1 in the reverse meeting earlier this month, Man City v Brentford could become only the third instance of one team beating another twice in the same calendar month in the Premier League, with both of the previous two being achieved by Arsenal (v Bolton in January 2010 & v Wolves in February 2022).

Man City vs Brentford: Team news

The Citizens have a couple of injury concerns ahead of this match.

Josko Gvardiol is out with an ankle ligament problem, and Jack Grealish has a groin issue picked up in the Champions League against Copenhagen.

Bernardo Silva and John Stones should also be fit to start after dropping to the bench at the weekend.

Meanwhile, Brentford are without several key players.

Rico Henry's season is over due to a torn ACL, and they have several other long-term absentees.

Ethan Pinnock injured his ankle against Wolves and will be out until the end of March.

Josh Dasilva, Kevin Schade, Aaron Hickey and Bryan Mbeumo are also not close to returning.

Grealish endured a groin injury that could disrupt his season Man City are unbeaten in their last 47 midweek (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday) games at the Etihad Stadium in the Premier League (W41 D6) since a 0-1 defeat to Tottenham in May 2010. The Citizens have won 26 of their last 27 such fixtures (D1), including each of their last 12 in a row. Brentford have lost seven of their 11 Premier League away games this season (W3 D1), as many as they lost on the road in the entirety of last season’s competition. The Bees have lost five of their last six away league outings, although did win their most recent 2-0 at Wolves. Manchester City have only lost one of their last 37 Premier League home games (W30 D6), although that was to Brentford in November 2022 (1-2). However, the Citizens have failed to win four of their last seven league games at the Etihad (W3 D4 L0), which is as many times as they had failed to win in their previous 38 such fixtures (W34 D2 L2).

Man City vs Brentford: What has been said?

City boss Guardiola was full of praise for Toney and Neal Maupay.

He said: "He's [Maupay] a good football player.

"Sometimes they [flashpoints] happen, but I'm pretty sure the intention is good.

"Toney is so dangerous. He's a master to use his body for the second ball, good finishing, you can link with him.

"He's one of the best I've ever seen [at that]. A few weeks ago, the goal we conceded, we defended not properly, but he did it really well."

Toney and Maupay are proving to be a good strike partnershipCredit: Getty Brentford have lost 10 of their last 13 Premier League games (W3), keeping just one clean sheet and conceding 29 goals in this period (2.2 per game). In fact, since the first game of this spell in November (0-3 defeat at Liverpool), the Bees have lost more Premier League matches than any other side (10). Man City have fallen behind in 11 of their 24 Premier League games this season; only in 2016-17 (12) and 2019-20 (13) have they trailed in more games in a league campaign under Pep Guardiola. However, the Citizens have recovered 18 points from losing positions this term; only in 1993-94 (20) have they regained more after falling behind in a single Premier League season. Only against Brighton (6) has Man City’s Phil Foden scored more Premier League goals than versus Brentford (5), against whom he netted a hat-trick earlier this month. In Premier League history, there have been just six previous instances of a player netting in two separate matches against the same opponent within the same calendar month, most recently Marcus Rashford against Leeds in February 2023. Ivan Toney has scored in both of his Premier League away games for Brentford this season, goals against Tottenham and Wolves. No Brentford player has ever netted in three successive away appearances in the competition.

Man City vs Brentford: Date and how to follow

This Premier League game is set to take place on Tuesday, February 20.

Kick-off at the Etihad is scheduled for 7:30pm.

talkSPORT will have live and exclusive coverage from Manchester, with Adrian Durham serving as your host.

Commentary will then come from Sam Matterface and former City manager Stuart Pearce.

talkSPORT.com will also be running a live blog.

To tune in to talkSPORT or talkSPORT 2 through the website, click HERE for the live stream. You can also listen via the talkSPORT app, on DAB digital radio, through your smart speaker and on 1089 or 1053 AM.