Manchester City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne is getting back to his best after struggling to recover from injuries and COVID-19 earlier in the season, manager Pep Guardiola said.
Kevin De Bruyne produced a stunning assist for Phil Foden to score Manchester City’s only goal in their 1-0 win at Brentford on Wednesday night.
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola's side did not put up a particularly impressive performance, but they still won all three points and are now eight points clear at the top of the Premier League standings.
Chelsea are second after a draw with Brighton, while Liverpool sit nine points behind City in third after a loss to Leicester, despite the fact that the Reds have a game in hand.
Brentford generated numerous nice scoring chances in the first half.
The champs were caught off guard by a scrappy goalmouth scramble, and Ederson made an outstanding stop from a Ruben Dias deflection.
When Foden tucked in a superb cross from De Bruyne in the 17th minute, City took the lead.
De Bruyne's assist was simply magnificent, and he deserved praise from Foden himself.
Apart from an on-going squabble between Fernandinho and Ivan Toney, which concluded in the Brentford striker gently treading on his opponent's shin as he lay on the ball, the rest of the first half was relatively unremarkable.
Brentford stood firm in defence, not least in stoppage time when Ethan Pinnock's header denied Grealish a straightforward far-post finish.
After the break, City could have, and probably should have, scored more goals.
Foden almost had another goal less than a minute into the second half, but his glancing header from another De Bruyne cross flew wide of the far post.
Foden had the ball in the net four minutes later, but he was offside when he nodded in Gabriel Jesus' cross, as he was now playing in the central offensive role with Grealish shifted out to the left.
Then, from the edge of the area, De Bruyne hit the near post with a sliding effort.
Three minutes from time the ball was in the Brentford net again, but VAR adjudged Aymeric Laporte was just offside when he headed in De Bruyne’s free-kick.
For once free-scoring City had to settle for just the one, which was enough to ensure a happy new year for Guardiola and his side.
