Manchester City score three in the second half of their Premier League match against Brentford to maintain title hopes.<\/p>\n
Published On 9 May 20269 May 2026<\/p>\n
Manchester City kept their slender Premier League title hopes alive as Jeremy Doku inspired a 3-0 win against Brentford.<\/p>\n
Pep Guardiola\u2019s side struggled to prise open Brentford for almost an hour at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday.<\/p>\n
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But Doku\u2019s latest dazzling strike broke the deadlock before Erling Haaland bagged his 26th league goal this season.<\/p>\n
Omar Marmoush wrapped up an essential City victory in stoppage time.<\/p>\n
City closed to two points behind leaders Arsenal, putting pressure back on Mikel Arteta\u2019s team to win at third-bottom West Ham on Sunday.<\/p>\n
After their damaging 3-3 draw at Everton on Monday put the destiny of the title in Arsenal\u2019s hands, City did their bit to prolong the drama.<\/p>\n
City will have a game in hand on Arsenal after this weekend, but the Gunners are guaranteed to clinch the title for the first time in 22 years if they win their remaining matches against West Ham, Burnley and Crystal Palace.<\/p>\n
Guardiola\u2019s men host Palace on Wednesday before turning their attention to the FA Cup final against Chelsea on May 16.<\/p>\n
Foreshadowing his match-winning contribution, City winger Doku forced an early save from Caoimhin Kelleher.<\/p>\n
But Gianluigi Donnarumma almost gifted Brentford a goal when Michael Kayode\u2019s long throw was scrambled off the line after the City keeper made a hash of his attempt to catch the ball.<\/p>\n
Donnarumma\u2019s lackadaisical effort was in keeping with City\u2019s laboured attempts to take control.<\/p>\n
Haaland wastefully headed high and wide when Doku\u2019s cross picked out the striker just six yards from goal.<\/p>\n
When Haaland met Doku\u2019s cutback with a close-range blast, Kelleher repelled it before Nathan Ake failed to convert the rebound to groans from City\u2019s frustrated fans.<\/p>\n
Bernardo Silva escaped with a booking after the City midfielder lashed out at Nathan Collins.<\/p>\n
City were equally lethargic at the start of the second half, and Donnarumma had to save Igor Thiago\u2019s low drive.<\/p>\n
Guardiola sent on Marmoush and Phil Foden in a bid to spark City into life, and the move paid instant dividends.<\/p>\n
Doku had scored twice with eye-catching curlers against Everton, and he repeated the trick to end Brentford\u2019s resistance in the 60th minute.<\/p>\n
Seizing the rebound after his initial effort was blocked, Doku whipped a superb strike into the top corner from the left-hand side of the penalty area.<\/p>\n
Doku\u2019s fourth goal in his last three games was nearly followed by one for Foden, but Kelleher was equal to his close-range shot.<\/p>\n
City were still vulnerable at the back, and Kevin Schade appealed in vain for a penalty after contact from Matheus Nunes.<\/p>\n
Haaland settled City\u2019s fraying nerves in the 75th minute, back-heeling in from close range after his first effort was blocked from Antoine Semenyo\u2019s cross.<\/p>\n
Marmoush bolstered City\u2019s goal difference, which is now just one less than Arsenal\u2019s, with a composed finish from inside the area in the final seconds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Manchester City score three in the second half of their Premier League match against Brentford to maintain title…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":420112,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2024,5213,111,43,139,69,2022,213,2025],"class_list":["post-420111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-europe","tag-football","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-united-kingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}