A remarkable season for Thomas Frank’s Bees comes to an end on Sunday, with the visit of Champions Manchester City to the Gtech Community Stadium.
And a memorable campaign could still have one more moment to come, as Brentford remain in the race for a Europa Conference League place heading into the final day.
Having wrapped up the Premier League title - a fifth in six years - last weekend, City’s aims now will be to make that league win the first part of a treble, with the FA Cup and Champions League finals still to come for Pep Guardiola’s side.
The opposition
Manchester City have historic treble in their sights
Top of the league from 4 December until the bitter end, Manchester City once again established themselves as the cream of the crop in 2021/22, with a fourth title win in five years.
It wasn’t plain-sailing, though - they were pushed by Liverpool every step of the way - and, to be frank, without a domestic cup and with the Champions League eluding them once again, given the precedent they have set in the past, there have been better seasons in recent years.
There was a feeling that would change in 2022/23 if they signed the reliable out-and-out striker they had been without since the departure of Sergio Aguero to Barcelona a year earlier. As it turned out, paying £51 million to bring Erling Haaland to the Etihad from Borussia Dortmund has turned out to be one of the shrewdest pieces of business in football history.
The way the Norwegian has run amok, shattering records for fun, has, arguably been the story of the season. No player scored two Premier League hat-tricks quicker than him, nor three trebles. He is the only player in the history of the league to have scored hat-tricks in three successive home games and he has become the fastest to ever score 20 league goals. Earlier this month, he set a new benchmark for goals scored in a single Premier League season.
There are simply not enough superlatives to describe City’s irrepressible no.9, who, somehow, does not even turn 23 until July.
Still, despite Haaland’s ridiculousness, Arsenal led the way for large periods of the season. October to February was punctuated by four defeats - one of which was, memorably, against Brentford - which kept Pep Guardiola’s men at arm’s length from the Gunners.
After a 1-0 defeat at Tottenham on 5 February, Guardiola said: "We are not in the position to think about being champions, just the next game.”
That match proved to be a turning point in City’s season.
Since then, they have progressed to the FA Cup final without conceding a single goal, seen off RB Leipzig, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid on the way to the Champions League final and won 14 of their last 15 league games at the time of writing. It is easy to see why Jack Grealish said he and his team-mates felt “unstoppable” after a 4-0 second-leg win over reigning champions Real.
The last of those league wins came on 21 May, when a much-changed side beat Chelsea 1-0 one day after they secured a third-straight league title without kicking a ball, with floundering Arsenal’s hopes extinguished by a defeat to Nottingham Forest.
"We have the feeling that we have done something exceptional in terms of the Premier League,” said Guardiola afterwards.
“Of course, to be considered one of the greatest teams we have to win in Europe. We have to win the Champions League otherwise you will say it was not complete. It can be unfair that you need to win the Champions League to give credit and value to what you have done but we have to accept it.”
The gameplan
With Manchester Evening News' Simon Bajkowski
Manchester Evening News' chief Manchester City writer Simon Bajkowski discusses another Premier League title win for the Cityzens, their upcoming Champions League and FA Cup finals, and the division's top goalscorer Erling Haaland in Hot off the Press.
"It is more difficult to say than it might have been had the title been on the line because it would just be the strongest XI he has available, whereas now he has the opportunity to think about the FA Cup and the Champions League.
"City have got to where they are by not taking their foot off the accelerator, but, at the same time, we have seen players like Phil Foden, Julian Alvarez and Riyad Mahrez come into the team and show what they can do as well.
"I would expect it to be a strong team because City will want to end the season strongly, regardless of having already been crowned champions, so I would expect Haaland to play, but there could be some rotation behind him to keep everyone feeling valued."
Team news
Frank confirms no fresh injury concerns
Thomas Frank has confirmed that there are no new injury concerns ahead of the Bees' clash with Manchester City on Sunday.
That means that the Bees will be without Ivan Toney (suspended), Keane Lewis-Potter (knee), Pontus Jansson (hamstring), Matt Cox (England duty) and Christian Norgaard (Achilles), after Thomas Strakosha returned to the squad last weekend at Tottenham.
With the title already wrapped up, Pep Guardiola has rotated his City squad over their last two matches.
With a pair of finals on the horizon, Nathan Ake (thigh), John Stones (muscle), Phil Foden (knock), Aymeric Laporte, Ruben Dias and Manuel Akanji all might not be risked on Sunday due to minor issues.
The manager
Pep Guardiola
There aren’t many domestic trophies that Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola hasn’t won.
The 51-year-old has put 10 league titles, 12 domestic cups, two Champions Leagues, two FIFA Club World Cups and three UEFA Super Cups in the trophy cabinet since first taking up management with Barcelona in 2008.
His first season in charge ended with Barca becoming the first Spanish side to win the treble of La Liga, Copa Del Rey, and Champions League; Guardiola, in the process, also became the youngest man to win the Champions League as a manager.
In 2011, after leading the club to another La Liga and Champions League double, Guardiola was awarded the Catalan Parliament's Gold Medal, their highest honour. The same year, he was also named the FIFA World Coach of the Year. He ended his four-year Barcelona stint in 2012 with 14 honours, a club record.
Following a sabbatical, Bayern Munich announced Guardiola would join the club as manager in 2013. Guardiola won the Bundesliga in each of the three seasons he was there.
He left the Bavarians for Manchester City in 2016 and guided them to a Premier League title in his second campaign in charge, breaking numerous records as the team became the first to pass the 100-point mark.
He won a second consecutive Premier League and EFL Cup the following season, as well as the FA Cup, becoming the first manager to win the domestic treble in English men's football.
He also holds the records for the most consecutive league games won in La Liga, the Bundesliga and the Premier League.
Last time out
Manchester City 1 Brentford 2 (Premier League, 12 November 2022)
Ivan Toney scored a 97th-minute winner as Brentford took all three points at the Etihad Stadium against title-chasing Manchester City.
The striker slotted home Josh Dasilva’s cutback to end City’s 16-game winning run at home and send the Bees into the World Cup break on a massive high.
Toney got Brentford’s first goal as well on 16 minutes, flicking home Ben Mee’s looping header, with Phil Foden equalising in first-half stoppage time.
With a point looking the most likely result, Toney took centre stage again with his late, late winner, giving Brentford a first away success of the Premier League campaign.
Match officials
John Brooks handed season-ending game
Referee: John Brooks
Assistants: Matthew Wilkes and Edward Smart
Fourth official: Darren England
VAR: Robert Jones
Assistant VAR: Natalie Aspinall
Wednesday’s game will be John Brooks' 14th in charge of the Bees, with only three Brentford defeats in the previous 13.
The Leicestershire and Rutland official started in his local leagues in the mid-2000s before moving up the ranks.
He ran the line at Wembley for the 2014 Championship play-off final, the same year he began refereeing in the National League. Two years later, in August 2016, Brooks took charge of his first EFL games.
His maiden second-tier game was in December 2017, with his second Championship assignment seeing Brentford take three points in the north east against Sunderland the following February.
Brooks took charge of four games during the Bees’ 2020/21 promotion-winning campaign, with Thomas Frank’s side winning three of those.
This season’s three Brentford assignments in the Premier League were August’s 1-1 draw with Everton, the defeat to Newcastle United in October, and last month’s 1-0 reverse at Manchester United.
Manchester City 22/23
328 fouls - fewest in Premier League
43 yellow cards - fewest in Premier League
1 red card - 9th in Premier League