Mohamed Salah scored the only goal of the game to help Liverpool produce one of the narrow football results of the weekend in the Premier League. After a strong start from the hosts at Anfield, where the pre-match rendition of the national song was drowned out on the day of King Charles’ coronation, Salah’s close-range opener in the 13th minute tied him with Steven Gerrard on 186 goals as Liverpool’s equal fifth-highest striker. In order to extend their winning streak to six games and put pressure on their faltering rivals Manchester United, who have two games in hand on the Reds, before their trip to West Ham on Sunday night, Liverpool was able to hang on for only their second clean sheet in seven games.
Although Brentford threatened in the second half and had a goal disallowed for Bryan Mbeumo in the first half, they lacked the finesse to overcome Liverpool. Thomas Frank’s team is still in ninth place, but with a victory over relegation-dangerous Leicester on Monday, Fulham can cut the distance to their west London rivals to just two.
Cody Gakpo was positioned on the right of a midfield three by Liverpool’s aggressive lineup, which immediately placed Brentford on the back foot. After 13 minutes, after Virgil van Dijk had headed Fabinho’s cross into his path, Salah made the pressure pay as he bundled in at the back post for his 100th Anfield goal. Trent Alexander-Arnold continued to shine in his hybrid position and appeared to have given Darwin Nunez his fifth assist in as many games when he floated in a beautiful through ball. However, from close range, the struggling Liverpool striker was unable to beat Brentford custodian David Raya.
Van Dijk found it challenging to keep up with Mbeumo’s pace as Brentford became more involved in the game. After an amazing run that saw him avoid Van Dijk and Alexander-Arnold, the Brentford attacker had the ball in the net, but he had been caught by the Liverpool offside trap. Although there were no clear-cut opportunities for Mbeumo or Ivan Toney to test Alisson, who became the fourth-fastest Liverpool custodian to achieve 100 clean sheets, Frank’s team kept it tight for Liverpool. With 0.19 expected goals at the game’s conclusion, Brentford recorded their lowest expected goals total in the Premier League since their promotion in 2021.
Diogo Jota sent a low, powerful cross against Gakpo’s shins, and it ricocheted off of him and missed the goal by two yards. After Aaron Hickey’s wayward header fell to him, the January acquisition from PSV should have performed better in the dying moments since he missed the goal once more. After a challenging season, Liverpool is virtually unnoticeably in the top-four picture thanks to Jurgen Klopp’s successful bet to switch the system mid-season.
“Because of his nature, I don’t see him stopping. You must have this passion to score goals if you want to be an offensive player. Many people overlook the number of goals he establishes. He frequently contributes to our goals by making the last pass, winning back a challenge, or scoring himself,” Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp said. “He is truly unique as a result, but we all know that. In a few years, when he works as a pundit in a studio, everyone will finally understand how talented he was when we were all watching him. I can’t answer for the Liverpool fans, but many people don’t value players enough when they are still on the pitch. He is unquestionably an all-time great for us, but right now he is working really hard to assist us, and that is what he is doing. I am certain that he is pleased with his success today. The numbers are ludicrously high for all of these extremely unique [records].”
“There is no doubt that we could have gotten something from the game. High stress was excellent since it really irritated them. We came very close to causing them even more issues. Although they usually get off to a blazing start, I believe they only had the goal and Nunez opportunity in the first half,” Brentford boss Thomas Frank said. “If the center-backs, number six, receive a yellow card during the game, you must have done something correctly to make things difficult for them. In the second half, we were causing a lot of issues for Liverpool. I believe it is OK if Alisson receives a yellow card at Anfield for idly wasting time.”
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