Pinnock’s winner consigns Manchester City to final-day defeat at Brentford

Manchester City may be just 180 minutes from history, and will be thankful the final 90 of their Premier League season passed without incident bar Brentford becoming the only team to do the double over them.

Ethan Pinnock’s goal was came late, the ball nodded into his path by Bryan Mbeumo after Kevin Schade’s cross, and it crowned a fine season for Brentford. Jeopardy had already been removed, Brentford relying on Aston Villa and Tottenham’s results to potentially seize the outside chance of crowning the finest season in the club’s modern history with a place in next season’s Europa Conference League.

Results elsewhere meant dancing in foreign plazas will be denied to travelling Bees. Perhaps that’s better in the long run. West Ham have reached the final of the competition but with a deleterious effect on their Premier League form, and a club of lesser resources such as Brentford is likely to have struggled even more.

Pep Guardiola’s team selection was a combination of protectionist and experimental, with seven changes from the midweek draw with Brighton. That opened the door for Thomas Frank’s team to complete their part of the job; Erling Haaland, on a run of just a single goal in six matches, was benched, with John Stones, Ilkay Gundogan, Rodri and Bernardo Silva for company. The lesser-spotted Kalvin Phillips filled the Rodri role on his second Premier League start and failed to exert the same control over midfield of his illustrious colleague.

City’s next generation were given a chance to shine against quality Premier League opposition. Phil Foden, the 23-year-old five-times champion lately dropped from prominence, was joined by the rangy Cole Palmer in attack and Rico Lewis, darting and squat, pushed into midfield,