Following a 1-0 win earlier this season, Manchester City are looking for their first league double over Brentford since 1936-37, a season in which they won their first top-flight title.
This is Brentford’s first visit to Man City in any competition since October 1989 in the League Cup, losing 4-1 at Maine Road under Steve Perryman.
Excluding the 1992-93 season, just two teams have won away at the reigning Premier League champions in their maiden campaign in the competition (D5 L20) – Derby in 1996-97 (3-2 vs Manchester United) and Bournemouth in 2015-16 (1-0 vs Chelsea).
Manchester City have won each of their last 17 Premier League games played on Wednesdays, including a 1-0 win against Brentford in the reverse fixture in December. In Premier League history, only Liverpool have had a longer winning run on a specific day of the week (21 on Saturday between 2018 and 2020).
Brentford have lost each of their last four league games, with the Bees last losing five in a row back in December 2007 under Terry Butcher in League Two.
After keeping a clean sheet in three of their first five Premier League games (0.4 goals conceded per game), Brentford have recorded just one shutout in their last 18 in the competition (2 goals conceded per game).
Since losing 2-0 against Crystal Palace in October, Man City have won their last six Premier League home games by an aggregate score of 20-4. Overall, Man City have scored 771 goals in 353 Premier League games at the Etihad Stadium (2.2 per game), the best ratio of any side at a specific venue in the competition (min. 20 games).
No team has opened the scoring in more different Premier League games than Man City this season, with the Citizens winning all 17 games in which they’ve scored first. Only two teams have ever had a 100% win rate when scoring first in a completed Premier League campaign – Portsmouth in 2007-08 (14/14) and Manchester United in 2017-18 (21/21).
Man City’s Kevin De Bruyne has been involved in 13 goals in his last 12 Premier League appearances against promoted sides (5 goals, 8 assists), setting up the Citizens’ winner against Brentford in his last such game.
Ivan Toney has scored six Premier League goals this season, twice as many as any other Brentford player. He could become the first player to score in three consecutive top-flight matches for the Bees since Len Townsend in November 1946.
COURTESY