{"id":633639,"date":"2026-05-09T22:18:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T22:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/633639\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T22:18:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T22:18:08","slug":"manchester-city-keep-pressure-on-arsenal-as-jeremy-doku-sparks-defeat-of-brentford-premier-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/633639\/","title":{"rendered":"Manchester City keep pressure on Arsenal as J\u00e9r\u00e9my Doku sparks defeat of Brentford | Premier League"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a biblical downpour, the skies cleared, and Manchester City<\/a> executed the gameplan: secure victory and three points to keep their breath on Arsenal\u2019s neck.<\/p>\n

The clincher arrived via Erling Haaland\u2019s 26th Premier League<\/a> goal of the season \u2013 as with his side\u2019s performance this was hardly pretty but no one in blue cared. Antoine Semenyo marauded down the right, his cross hit at least one Brentford body, the ball came to Haaland who, with a second stab at it, bundled home, the No 9 facing away from goal.<\/p>\n

Pep Guardiola jumped into the arms of his assistant, Kolo Tour\u00e9, and City could relax and tune into Arsenal\u2019s trip on Sunday to West Ham praying they do them a favour.<\/p>\n

Afterwards the manager took up this theme. \u201cCome on you Irons\u201d, he said, and playfully crossed his arms to ape the club\u2019s badge, which shows two hammers.<\/p>\n

The Catalan did so because the deficit is down to two points but each have played 35 matches so Arsenal cannot be caught if West Ham, Burnley and Crystal Palace are beaten. Yet though City struggled before the scintillating J\u00e9r\u00e9my Doku\u2019s solo effort on the hour, they retain hope.<\/p>\n

Once more they missed the control of Rodri, so played in flashes. One came when the menacing Doku muscled along the left and flipped the ball to Haaland: the big No 9 blazed at goal but a deflection, plus Caoimh\u00edn Kelleher\u2019s hands, saved the visitors.<\/p>\n

Brentford showed why only one of their previous eight games in the competition had been defeats, bringing a blend of competitiveness and pressing that caused City to unload from distance. Tijjani Reijnders (twice), Rayan Cherki, Doku and Bernardo Silva were all thwarted.<\/p>\n

J\u00e9r\u00e9my Doku fires home Manchester City\u2019s opening goal. Photograph: Matt West\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

They also took the contest to them, primarily in a first-half passage. This featured Gianluigi Donnarumma flapping at a long throw, the ball bouncing off Matheus Nunes and on to Silva before Nunes hoofed clear. Then, Nunes passed straight to Mikkel Damsgaard and, as Guardiola watched dismayed, the Bees broke, but they lacked teeth.<\/p>\n

Cherki joined the right-back in the clumsy stakes when a heavy touch caused him to foul Aaron Hickey: Mathias Jensen dropped the free-kick into City\u2019s area and a diving Donnarumma pushed it away.<\/p>\n

City\u2019s stop-start mode followed the narrow 1-0 win at Burnley and Monday\u2019s 3-3 draw at Everton <\/a>and showed a loss of fluidity precisely when not required \u2013 in the defining phase of the championship race.<\/p>\n

They carried the greater threat, though \u2013 usually through Doku, who continually pierced Hickey\u2019s right-back corridor to shoot, or create: Nico O\u2019Reilly, Silva, and Haaland were all found \u2013 the striker failed to finish, as he did with an earlier header that found Kelleher\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n

Guardiola had dropped a surprise by selecting Reijnders instead of Nico Gonz\u00e1lez. The midfielder\u2019s previous league start was the 2-0 win over the bottom team, Wolves<\/a>, on 24 January but of this Guardiola said: \u201cI wanted runners to arrive in the area.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the sides changed ends, City had 45 minutes to break the deadlock. They nearly conceded when a slick Brentford free-kick routine began by Jensen closed with Kristoffer Ajer agonisingly near to slipping in behind. Then Igor Thiago, on 22 league goals to Haaland\u2019s 25 (at this juncture), galloped forward and unloaded and required Donnarumma and Marc Gu\u00e9hi to keep City intact.<\/p>\n

City were entrenched in unfamiliar territory \u2013 their own \u2013 and so on 59 minutes Guardiola acted. Off came Reijnders for Phil Foden and Cherki for Omar Marmoush. It worked instantly as Brentford lost concentration. City had claimed a corner before the substitutions and, now, Silva took it from the left, short to Doku. The No 11 danced with the ball before hitting it in, playing an inadvertent one-two with Damsgaard. Now, as with his late equaliser at Everton, he cut inward and curved a peach beyond Kelleher that kissed the far left of the net. Cue a Guardiola jig and the ranks of City fans hitting ecstasy regarding a goal felt in the red zone of north London.<\/p>\n

Erling Haaland doubles Manchester City\u2019s lead in ungainly style. Photograph: Martin Rickett\/PA<\/p>\n

The Belgian dedicated his goal to his father, David. \u201cIt\u2019s his birthday. I\u2019m becoming a dad soon and he sacrificed his life for me not knowing I would be what I am now. That\u2019s a big thing \u2013 him turning 60.\u201d<\/p>\n

Volume ratcheted and City were roared on, Foden going close to adding the second. Yet Brentford knifed through the home defence: Dango Outtara put Thiago in, he tapped to Kevin Schade, and the No 7 went to ground in the area under Nunes\u2019s attentions.<\/p>\n

Keith Andrews screamed for a penalty but the video assistant referee backed the referee, Michael Salisbury, in not awarding the spot-kick. Brentford\u2019s manager said: \u201cThe comment I heard [from the officials] was not enough contact. For someone who is as quick as Kevin Schade, I don\u2019t know how much contact it needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marmoush\u2019s late third upped the goal difference which may prove vital.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a biblical downpour, the skies cleared, and Manchester City executed the gameplan: secure victory and three points…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":633640,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":["post-633639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=633639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/633640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=633639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=633639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=633639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}