Brentford and Manchester City draw the curtain on round seven of the 2025-26 Premier League season with their meeting at the Gtech Community Stadium on Sunday.
Both teams were victorious in their last league outings as the home side claimed a 3-1 win over Manchester United, while the visitors made light work of Burnley en route to a 5-1 triumph.
Brentford preview
Brentford have made a relatively slow start to the season, but will hope their win over Man United last time out ushers in a strong run of results.
Igor Thiago’s first-half double and a late Mathias Jensen strike secured Keith Andrews’ most impressive result since taking over and lifted the Bees to 13th.
Having played out a 2-2 draw at home to Chelsea just after the September international break, Brentford now go in search of another positive result. However, their recent record against Man City is poor.
Since beating City home and away in the 2022-23 campaign, Sunday’s hosts have managed just one draw from the subsequent four meetings.
That result came via a late comeback back in January when Yoane Wissa and Christian Norgaard netted in the final 10 minutes to cancel out Phil Foden’s double.
Manchester City preview
Man City were closing in on a third straight win, but saw a lead slip away late on once again in Wednesday’s 2-2 draw against Monaco.
A double from Erling Braut Haaland on either side of Jordan Teze’s strike had Pep Guardiola’s men on course to leave with all three points before Eric Dier converted a 90th-minute penalty to restore parity.
City are now unbeaten in six matches across all competitions since losing consecutive outings against Tottenham Hotspur and Brighton & Hove Albion.
With 15 goals scored and only four conceded in that span, Sunday’s visitors are gradually approaching their usual levels of performance.
This weekend’s clash is another opportunity to highlight how far they have recovered from a shambolic 2024-25 season.
Team news
Gustavo Nunes and Paris Maghoma are guaranteed absentees for Brentford due to long-term hamstring issues.
Reiss Nelson has not featured in any of the home side’s last two matches through illness, and the forward is likely to miss Sunday’s game/
Defenders Rayan Ait Nouri and Abdukodir Khusanov are both dealing with ankle issues, ruling them out of contention for City here.
Ryan Cherki (thigh) and Omar Marmoush (knee) will also miss the trip to London.
Brentford Predicted Starting XI (4-2-3-1): Kelleher; Kayode, Collins, Van den Berg, Hickey; Henderson, Yarmolyuk; Ouattara, Damsgaard, Schade; Thiago.
Manchester City Predicted Starting XI (4-1-4-1): Donnarumma; O’Reilly, Gvardiol, Dias, Nunes; Rodri; Savinho, Reijnders, Foden, Doku; Haaland.
