Nathan Ake and Tijjani Reijnders replace Abdukodir Khusanov and Nico Gonzalez for Manchester City's match against Brentford. Rodri is not fully fit, and Josko Gvardiol has returned to training after injury.
Ake and Reijnders come in as City make two changes for Brentford clash
Nathan Ake and Tijjani Reijnders come in Abdukodir Khusanov and Nico Gonzalez for the 17:30 (UK) Etihad encounter.
Gonzalez drops to the bench while Khusanov and Rodri are not fully fit to face the Bees alongside long-term absentee Josko Gvardiol who has returned to training after a four-month spell on the sidelines.
Ruben Dias, meanwhile, is named as a sub and is involved in the squad for the first time since March’s home clash with Real Madrid.
Victory this evening would move us within two points of leaders Arsenal with just three games remaining of the 2025/26 Premier League season.
CITY XI: Donnarumma, Nunes, Guéhi, Ake, O’Reilly, Bernardo (C), Reijnders, , , ,
Nathan Ake and Tijjani Reijnders are the players coming in for the match.
Rodri is not fully fit to face Brentford.
Josko Gvardiol has returned to training after a four-month absence due to injury.
The match is scheduled for 17:30 (UK) at the Etihad Stadium.
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BRENTFORD XI: Kelleher, Hickey, Collins (C), Ajer, Kayode, Jensen, Yarmoluk, Damsgaard, Lewis-Potter, Schade, Thiago
Subs: Valdirmarsson, van den Berg, Pinnock, Henderson, Dasilva, Nelson, Outtarra, Janelt, Furo
Gianluigi Donnarumma is between the sticks and protected by a back four of Matheus Nunes, Marc Guéhi, Nathan Ake and Nico O’Reilly.
Bernardo Silva will take on the anchoring role and supported in the central ground by Tijjani Reijnders and Rayan Cherki.
Antoine Semenyo and Jeremy Doku will look to service talisman Erling Haaland.
DANGER MAN DOKU
Jeremy Doku is a man bang in form right now as he looks to sting the Bees tonight.
The flying winger, true poetry in motion, is showing an abundance of pace and grace out there on the football field and playing a starring role in the sky blue shirt.
In his last five outings, Doku has scored four goals and provided two assists.
In fact, since the start of April, only Ollie Watkins and Morgan Gibbs-White have been involved in more goals among Premier League players than Doku.
Doku has also created 50 chances this season - and all from open play! It’s the most chances created by any player without any of them coming from set pieces like corners or free-kicks.
This current purple patch is coming at the perfect time as we enter the true business end of the season.
His manager, Pep Guardiola, has certainly been impressed with what he’s seen this term.
“I’m so glad he made the step to score, and feels the winger has to score and make an impact not just the action one against one, not just the goals and assists but his contributions defensively,” the boss said in his pre-match press conference.
“Jeremy has been amazing this season, amazing.”
Long may that continue!
City will be celebrating our charity this evening as we host the annual ‘Community Matchday’ which brings together players, fans, staff and partners in support of City in the Community.
Activities aim to increase awareness of the charity’s work, create once-in-a-lifetime opportunities for participants and support fundraising.
Fans will be able to access bonus community content, including within the matchday programme, during half-time and across digital channels.
The fixture will also see the return of the popular ‘hand-drawn’ graphics on social media, as local school children were once again invited to draw their favourite City stars.
The stadium, which is being renamed ‘The City in the Community Etihad Stadium’ for the day, will come alive with charity branded banners before kick-off.
And once again, the day is being used to create once-in-a-lifetime opportunities for City in the Community participants, including team photo spaces, announcing players off the bus on the blue carpet, presenting on the Matchday Live Show and joining the media teams.
City in the Community empowers healthier lives with city youth through football.
To find out more, visit www.mancity.com/CITC or follow the charity on social media @CITCmancity.
-Brentford have lost three of their four Premier League away games against City, with the exception being a 2-1 win in November 2022.
-Having lost our first Premier League home match of the season 2-0 against Tottenham Hotspur, City are unbeaten in our last 15 at the Etihad (W12 D3), scoring at least twice in 13 of those 15 games.
-Only Liverpool (19) have scored more goals in the final 15 minutes of Premier League games than Brentford (18) this season. However, City have conceded fewer goals in this timeframe than any other side (7).
-City have conceded the first goal in just five different Premier League games this season. The only side to do so fewer in a single campaign are the Blues ourselves (3 in 2018/19).
-Brentford have the highest shot conversion rate of any side in the Premier League this season, converting 13.8% of their attempts. In fact, since their debut campaign in 2021/22 the Bees have the second highest conversion rate of any side (13.1%), behind only 3x title winners City (13.7%).
-City’s Phil Foden has only scored more Premier League goals against Brighton (8) than he has against Brentford (7), though only one of his seven against the Bees has come at the Etihad Stadium.
-Brentford’s Igor Thiago has scored 22 goals from 79 shots in the Premier League this season, a conversion rate of 27.9%. Of the 67 players to have scored 20+ in a season since 2003/04, only four players have had a better conversion rate than the Brazilian.
-Though we’ve only failed to score in one of our nine Premier League games against Brentford, our average of 1.4 goals per game against the Bees (13 in 9) is our lowest against any opponent we’ve faced under Pep Guardiola.