Halaad is back on his scoring mood. He has scored two goals but one was canceled. It was a difficult first half for Man city, but Halaad was able to find the back of the net on the 71st minutes of the game through a counter.
Manchester City should try as much as possible to score a second goal to seal up their victory, because Brentford might just equalize the goal in the last minutes of the game.
I sometimes think that Manchester City's attempt to goal ratio is a bit off this year. Against Brentford they had again overwhelming statistics on their side and had 25 shots or attempts, of course not all of them on target. But I have now observed that a couple of times that Manchester City has these statistics and yet they have many games which end much closer than they should.
Perhaps it is this ratio in the end that could cost them the title against Liverpool. I know this is just speculation, but in some other seasons they were brutal and ended those games with 5-0 instead of 1-0 and the games were sometimes over with the halftime whistle. I am not sure what their issue is as De Bruyne is back and their attacking line is impressive, but if they can't get back into this beast mode and often have these close games, they will probably get punished for that in a few games.
Every team and coach continues to work hard to find a solution to stop Manchester City and Pep Guardiola's dominance in the Premier League. On average, coaches strengthen their defense because it makes Manchester City's playing strategy less effective. Manchester City use a lot of wingers and they usually score goals through crosses although they can also do it from outside the penalty box.
Brentford managed to make it difficult for Manchester City to score a goal before they were hit hard by Haaland on the counter-attack. Brentford's defense in that match was really good and the goalkeeper's performance was also quite brilliant. Mark Flekken recorded 9 brilliant saves from a total of 11 shots fired by Manchester City throughout the match, so that is what prevented Manchester City from having more goals.
There were many teams that adopted defensive and counter-attacking strategies against Pep Guardiola and his team, but not all of them were successful in stopping Pep Guardiola. Brentford, Chelsea, Tottenham, Crystal Palace and most other teams are the same, so this is a challenge for Manchester City and their striker.