Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola took aim at Erling Haaland's critics after victory over Brentford.

Haaland struck on 71 minutes as City won 1-0 on Tuesday night.

Guardiola said afterwards: "When I was young, I was never ever a journalist. Top strikers score a lot of goals, don't criticise, he will shut your mouth. Sooner or later he is there.

"He was out for two months, he lost his grandmother, it is not easy for a human being.

"We spoke about the moment (missing chances against Chelsea) and I realised this later, but he didn't say anything about the passing away of his grandmother.

"In this type of game like Brentford, you need Erling. Today we could not use Kevin de Bruyne because he had niggles in his hamstring and I didn't want to take the risk."