Pep Guardiola with some encouragement for Liverpool as his side move 12-points clear at the top

Riyad Mahrez and Kevin De Bruyne were on target as Manchester City saw off Brentford to move 12 points clear at the Premier League summit.

Mahrez rewarded City for a dominant first half with a 40th-minute penalty before De Bruyne sealed a comfortable 2-0 win at the Etihad Stadium after a Brentford error in the second half.

City’s victory was their first in the competition for almost a month – although they played only one other fixture in that time – but put the pressure back on second-placed Liverpool ahead of their outing on Thursday.

This latest win moved City into a commanding lead at the top of the table, but Guardiola told BT Sport that the gap is misleading.

"Liverpool have two games left to play and then we will see the gap," he stressed.

"Also, we still have many games left to play and tough games like today and results will happen – look tonight at Tottenham losing at home to Southampton."

Everyone is tough competition but it is important at this stage to have 60 points, we have done incredibly well so far."

On the victory against Brentford, the City boss said: "They make it so difficult. They are so aggressive with their pressing and compact when they defend, they do it well. We had to be patient with no mistakes and in the end we got the result.

"It is difficult when they defend so deep with 10 players, literally on the 18-yard box.

"This was an important victory, three more points to reach 60 with 14 games left, next up Norwich.

"Riyad Mahrez was especially good and so solid in the penalty, which we struggled with in previous seasons. It was difficult for the wingers as they did not have space, but we won."

"Joao Cancelo was the best winger we had, he was better than our [traditional] wingers. He was really good, him and John Stones were so important today to create more space for the other guys with their movement."