Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola was full of praise for the way Brentford took the game to the champions and gave his side an early scare before the hosts came from behind to win and top the Premier League on Saturday.
Thomas Frank’s visitors attacked straight after kickoff and scored in 22 seconds — the quickest English top flight goal so far this season — before Erling Haaland’s double secured a 2-1 win.
But Brentford gave City all sorts of trouble in the opening period on the counter-attack before Guardiola made changes at the break that pegged the visitors back in their own half.
“I am a big fan of Thomas Frank. I don’t remember in eight or nine years having a team playing the way they played. We were lucky with the deflection (for Haaland’s first goal) because they deserved 1-0 (lead),” Guardiola said.
“We struggled a lot to read when to shoot and press. We were lucky to find the goals but in the second half we were better and probably deserved to score more goals.”
Guardiola added that this was exactly the kind of game City needed to remind them how difficult the league is and it is only a matter of time before Frank manages a big club in Europe.
“People say City so strong but the Premier League is so difficult. Today was the real proof,” he added.
“I give a lot of credit to my players, from where we come from in the past but to still be able to suffer. I prefer to win that way than four or five nil. We need that.”
For Brentford, it was a golden opportunity to move into the top four but they now sit two points behind fourth-placed Nottingham Forest, who upset Liverpool 1-0 at Anfield.
“Standing here I am a combination of extremely disappointed we didn’t get something out of this game but on the other hand very proud,” Frank said.
“The first 25 minutes was world class, we were better than Manchester City. Second half, they were more on top and made it difficult. A point would have been fair and not often teams can come here and say that,” the Dane added.
“I respect Pep Guardiola very much and a lot of the reasons I do is because he made tactical changes at halftime and then he is not too proud to put the ball down in the corner because they need to win. We must have done something right today.”