Manchester City will seek an immediate return to winning ways in the Premier League when Brentford pay a visit to the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday evening.
The reigning champions advanced in the FA Cup with a resounding 4-1 victory over Fulham at the weekend, but the Bees lost by the same scoreline away to Everton.
Match preview
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Back from the Africa Cup of Nations with a bang, Riyad Mahrez may have endured continental disappointment with Algeria, but the former Leicester City man was on top form to help Pep Guardiola's men comfortably see off Fulham in the FA Cup.
Mahrez struck twice after the break following Ilkay Gundogan and John Stones's efforts in the first half, with Man City forced to come from behind on their own turf after Liverpool target Fabio Carvalho broke the deadlock within four minutes.
A trip to Peterborough United awaits Man City in the fifth round as they seek to keep their hopes of a historic treble alive, although a 1-1 draw at Southampton before the international break has made the title race somewhat more interesting.
Guardiola's side still hold a comfortable nine-point lead at the summit over Liverpool, but the Reds do have a game in hand over the reigning champions, so a couple of dissatisfactory results for Man City could blow the race for glory wide open in the coming weeks.
City will certainly not expect to slip up at the fortress that is the Etihad, though, with the 4-1 win over Fulham representing their ninth home victory on the bounce across all competitions - a run that includes six consecutive Premier League triumphs on their own territory.
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In stark contrast, a streak of red has since begun to overshadow Brentford's strong start to their first-ever Premier League season, and their fortunes did not improve in the FA Cup against a Frank Lampard-marshalled Everton side.
Yerry Mina, Mason Holgate, Richarlison and Andros Townsend were all on target for the Toffees as Brentford exited in the fourth round with a whimper, and attention now turns to trying to end a worrying losing run in the Premier League before the threat of a relegation dogfight presents itself.
The 4-1 defeat to Everton marked a fifth defeat in a row in all competitions for Brentford, who have also lost each of their last four in the Premier League, with Thomas Frank's side now occupying 14th position in the table - still eight points clear of the dotted line, though.
Performances on the road have been extremely difficult to come by for Brentford over the past couple of months, with the Bees now winless in seven away from home in the top flight - losing five of them while conceding a whopping 19 goals in that miserable pattern.
Man City could only claim a 1-0 win when they paid a visit to the Brentford Community Stadium back in December, but the visiting crowd may very well harbour fears of their side getting carved open at will by the merciless leaders in midweek.
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Team News
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City have little in the way of injury concerns to worry about for the visit of Brentford, with Cole Palmer - who would not have started anyway - and Gabriel Jesus the only two absentees this week.
Jesus is yet to shake off niggles from international duty and will not make the cut, while his compatriot Ederson prepares to displace Zack Steffen in between the sticks.
Ruben Dias and Aymeric Laporte should also return to form a familiar pairing in front of the Brazilian, with Raheem Sterling and Bernardo Silva also set to reprise their roles in the XI.
Brentford duo Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa both missed the defeat to Everton after testing positive for COVID-19, but the duo may recover in time to face the champions.
That is more than can be said for Mathias Jorgensen, Tarique Fosu and Julian Jeanvier, while new signing Christian Eriksen is highly unlikely to be given the green light to play just yet.
Frank will certainly consider reintroducing Frank Onyeka and Shandon Baptiste to the XI after a miserable afternoon in the cup, while the return of David Raya in goal has been welcomed with open arms. Ethan Pinnock also ought to be re-introduced after his international stint with Jamaica.
Manchester City possible starting lineup:
Ederson; Walker, Dias, Laporte, Cancelo; Silva, Rodri, De Bruyne; Mahrez, Foden, Sterling
Brentford possible starting lineup:
Raya; Ajer, Jansson, Pinnock; Canos, Norgaard, Onyeka, Jensen, Henry; Toney, Mbeumo
We say: Manchester City 3-0 Brentford
From the highs of beating Arsenal on the opening day to the current predicament they find themselves in, Brentford may start to look over their shoulder if this game pans out as expected.
The Bees just cannot shut up shop away from home and are visiting a Man City side in imperious form as they march towards the title, so another straightforward success surely awaits the champions in midweek.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Manchester City win with a probability of 85.57%. A draw had a probability of 9.8% and a win for Brentford had a probability of 4.65%.
The most likely scoreline for a Manchester City win was 3-0 with a probability of 11.66%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (11.1%) and 4-0 (9.19%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (4.59%), while for a Brentford win it was 1-2 (1.49%). The actual scoreline of 2-0 was predicted with an 11.1% likelihood. Our team at Sports Mole and our data analysis both correctly predicted that Manchester City would win this match.
