Phil Foden bagged a hat-trick as Manchester City secured a come-from-behind 3-1 victory over Brentford on Monday night.
Premier League
Result: Brentford 1-3 Manchester City
Date: 05 February 2024
Venue: Gtech Community Stadium
Haaland made his first start since early December as Kyle Walker, Ruben Dias and Bernardo Silva also returned, while Brentford gave a full debut to loan signing Sergio Reguilon.
Pep Guardiola was certainly wary of the Bees, who did the double over his side last season but they knew a win would push them close to Liverpool, who lost at Arsenal on Sunday.
Despite City's early dominance, it was Brentford who broke the deadlock on 20 minutes when Mark Flekken's goal-kick found Neil Maupay who raced clear on goal to slot past Ederson.
The defending league champions pushed for an equaliser for the rest of stanza and were camped in the Brentford half, but they had to wait until the 43rd minute to trouble Flekken after Phil Foden's powerful shot from distance.
However, Foden got his reward on the stroke of halftime after latching onto a poor headed clearance in the box before controlling well and calmly slotting past Flekken.
City carried that momentum into the second and took the lead eight minutes in when Foden completed his brace by nodding home a cross from Kevin de Bruyne.
The night belonged to Foden who completed his hat-trick in the 69th minute after latching onto a pass from Haaland before racing clear to place the ball past Flekken and give his side a two-goal advantage.
The win took the Citizens back to second spot, two points behind league leaders Liverpool with a game in hand.
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