Thomas Frank spoke with the media on Thursday ahead of his side’s trip to the Etihad Stadium.

The Brentford head coach shared his thoughts on Manchester City and top goalscorer Erling Haaland, and provided an update on the fitness of Vitaly Janelt and Christian Norgaard.

Thomas Frank believes that Brentford are facing the ‘toughest team in the world’ on Saturday.

The Bees head north to take on Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium in their final game before the World Cup.

The 2021/22 Premier League champions currently sit second in the table – two points behind Arsenal - having won ten of their opening 13 fixtures.

“Is it going to be difficult? It’ll be unbelievably difficult,” Frank began.

“They have an almost complete squad and added Haaland who will be destroying goal records in the coming years. A lot has been said about him – he is a machine. They are an unbelievably difficult side to close down, but I back us to do something.

“We have never, ever gone into a game believing that we’re not capable of winning.

Thoma“It’s most likely the biggest challenge and we’re looking forward to it.”

With 18 goals in 12 outings, City’s top scorer Haaland is only five strikes away from equalling last season’s golden boot winners Mohamed Salah and Son Heung-Min.

Frank admitted that he is impressed by the Norwegian’s recent form.

“He is a goal machine that will break records going forward,” he said.

“He’s already done that so far and he’ll continue doing it.

"He’s playing for a team that is giving him probably the best possibilities to score goals; they will provide him with good opportunities from crosses or slide passes.

“It’s about trying to stop the source; the more we can stop the source, the better.

“It will not be the first time that people have tried to keep De Bruyne quiet; he always seems to find a way.”

Last season’s meetings with Manchester City were close-fought encounters; Brentford losing 1-0 at home and 2-0 away. Frank believes that his side can take confidence from those performances.

“We showed a few bits to the boys about the last two games against them and also a couple of other games because City and Pep [Guardiola] always find new solutions that you need to be aware of,” he said.

“We managed to keep them not quiet but relatively low on shots and expected goals if you take away the penalty in the second game.

“In that aspect there is some confidence, but you are never satisfied just losing 1-0 or 2-0; you always want to go for the win. That will be the same. At the end of the game, we’ll see if it was a good performance or not.”

Frank confirmed that Vitaly Janelt will be available after recovering from a minor muscle injury that kept him out the Bees’ midweek defeat to Gillingham.

Christian Norgaard ‘is in a good position’ and will be available after playing the opening half against the Gills – his first minutes since August due to an Achilles injury.

Kristoffer Ajer, Shandon Baptiste, Aaron Hickey and Pontus Jansson will be unavailable until after the World Cup.