Man City stunned by Brentford, Spurs edge seven-goal thriller

Manchester City players react to conceding their second goal during the English Premier League football match between Manchester City and Brentford at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester, north west England, on November 12, 2022. – Brentford won the game 2-1. (Photo by Oli SCARFF / AFP)

Manchester City missed the chance to go top of the Premier League with a shock 2-1 home defeat to Brentford on Saturday as Tottenham rallied to win a 4-3 thriller over Leeds.

Liverpool climbed into the top six by seeing off Southampton 3-1, while James Maddison’s World Cup dreams might have been ended by injury after he scored in Leicester’s 2-0 win at West Ham.

City had not lost at the Etihad since February, but were stunned by Ivan Toney’s response to being left out of England’s World Cup squad.

The Brentford captain headed in his 10th goal of the season to give the Bees an early lead, but City responded before half-time thanks to Phil Foden’s sumptuous strike.

Pep Guardiola warned ahead of the game that his side might have one eye on the World Cup with 10 of the City starting XI heading to Qatar.

A lacklustre performance from the champions was punished in the eighth minute of time added on when Brentford cut open Guardiola’s men on the counter-attack and Toney tapped in Josh Dasilva’s cross.

“The better team won,” conceded Guardiola. “We had a lot of problems and we could not press as they didn’t allow us.”

Thomas Frank hailed the result as Brentford’s best ever in the Premier League as they moved up to 10th.

“Speaking to some people from the club, this is probably the single biggest ever result,” said Frank. “Against one of the richest clubs in the world and we have one of the lowest budgets in the division.”

City’s defeat means Arsenal can open