City Watch: Blues see off the Bees

Manchester City resumed their Champions League campaign last week before heading into their final Premier League game before the second international break of the season. 

City faced AS Monaco last Wednesday and as I mentioned in my column a week ago, the last time Pep’s side faced the French side, it ended in the Blues being knocked out of the competition at the round of 16 stage.

I had more confidence going into the game last week however, Monaco aren’t the team they were in Guardiola’s first season, coupled with the fact City were in good form going into the game. 

Erling Haaland continued his ruthless goal scoring form, finishing off two terrific chances in the first half to give us a 2-1 lead going into the break.

City absolutely dominated the second half, wasting chance after chance to wrap the game up and take three points. 

That can really only end one way, which is giving away the lead right at the end. 

Nico Gonzalez gave away a penalty in the last few moments, the referee deeming he had a high boot against Eric Dier from a free kick.

It’s almost as if the Tottenham curse came back to haunt us, with Dier scoring the equalising penalty. 

City now have four points after two games in the Champions League, and more worryingly, we haven’t won a European away game in exactly 12 months following the draw in France.

One more game loomed before the international break, the Blues had a trip to West London to face Brentford on Sunday, who just the week before had beaten our neighbours, Manchester United. 

I have to admit, it’s the best I’ve seen the team play defensively in a long time, especially after the woes of last season.

Erling Haaland yet again bagged a goal early on in the game, giving the Blues a one goal lead just nine minutes in. 

Brentford played well defensively too, shutting out any chance of a second goal. 

However, it was clear that the Bees’ plan was to catch us on the counter attack, and even with the lack of Rodri, who came off injured in the first half, City had an answer for everything Brentford threw at them.

As I mentioned, Rodri did come off with a suspected injury in the first half. 

As you can imagine, every City fan was holding their breath, hoping that it wasn’t going to turn out to be serious like last season. 

He has spoken out since, and although he will not feature in Spain’s international games, he is confident he’ll be back for our game against Everton in a few weeks.