Manchester City have beaten Brentford tonight at the Etihad Stadium to go just one point behind Liverpool in the Premier League table.

City are breathing down the necks of Jurgen Klopp's Reds, after a hard-fought win over the Bees tonight.

City absolutely dominated the ball and had a plethora of chances, but struggled to find a way past Mark Flekken.

Nearly all of City's outfield players had at least one shot on goal, but for two-thirds of the game there was just no way through.

Brentford were extremely stubborn, and did carry a threat on the counter in the first-half with Ivan Toney and Frank Onyeka, but for the most part, they did just camp in their own half.

Eventually, the pressure told and it was Erling Haaland who got the all-important goal for City.

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Brentford were sitting in for most of the game and it was very hard for the hosts to breach them.

Brentford were that deep at times, even City's centre-halves were in the Bees' half.

That allowed Manuel Akanji, starting on the left over Nathan Ake, to actually have fairly impressive outing in an attacking sense.

The Switzerland international often marauded forward and used the ball extremely well, breaking the lines when he could.

Considering he has not played the position very often, he looked very comfortable. He even tested Mark Flekken from distance with a fantastic curling shot in the first-half.

He also put a couple of very decent balls into the box.

According to Sofascore, he completed a staggering 106/108 (98%) passes, had 123 touches (second-most after Rodri, 124) and made three clearances and two interceptions.

Akanji deserves his flowers as City beat Brentford This was a really solid performance from Akanji considering the star does not often play on the left side.

He's played it only a handful of times for City, but tonight he completely locked down his side of the pitch and used the ball ever so smartly. He always looked to pass forward, on a night where a lot of his teammates were not being incisive enough.

The PS15 million signing from Borussia Dortmund has probably not lived up to the same high standards he set last season overall this term.

But Akanji looked very comfortable in the role he played tonight and perhaps this could be something Pep Guardiola looks to do more often going forward.