Mohamed Salah’s remarkable Anfield record of scoring continued with his two goals as Liverpool defeated Brentford 3-0. This was his 200th goal in English football.
The Egyptian international has now scored 10 Premier League goals this season, surpassing only Erling Haaland of Manchester City. He did so by scoring in his sixth consecutive home match to add another chapter to the club’s record books.
The pair are set to meet at the Etihad stadium in an exciting first-versus-2nd match immediately following the break. This will test Liverpool’s championship credentials.
The primary goal of the midfield overhaul was to return City to the Champions League. But after winning eight out of their first 12 games and having a 100% record in all competitions at home, a new complexion emerged. They are now the City chief chasers once again.
Salah took 39 minutes to defeat Brentford. Diogo Jota added a late goal to Salah’s two goals either side of the halftime break.
Salah, who became the first Liverpool player in history to score or assist in all six of his team’s home Premier League matches in a row, joined Alan Shearer (and Thierry Henry) in scoring 15 straight home Premier League games.
Darwin Nunez’s rapid improvement this season, which continues to amaze, was the main architect of victory, even though he received the praise once more.
Salah, who was criticized for his wayward shots last weekend, scored two goals that were disallowed by VAR for being offside. One of them, however, was only marginally so.
The nine assists he has racked up in his Liverpool career are all for Egypt. In the Premier League, it’s only the third occasion that two players combine for a player’s top seven. Kevin Campbell and Ian Wright combined (first 10), and Troy Deeney and Odion Ighalo combined (first 7).
He has made a huge improvement in his all-round performance compared to last year’s inconsistent performances. While he still makes the occasional mistake, he is slowly becoming the number nine that the team requires.
Nunez scored in the 22nd after Dominik szoboszlai deflected his shot into his path.
This was not his first offside goal, but it was still the closest.
It was evident that he returned to an onside position when he buried a overhead kick, after Flekken parried Virgil van Dijk’s header.
Brentford was limited to counterattacks, but nearly scored when Bryan Mbeumo beat Trent Alexander-Arnold. Alisson Becker’s touch on the ball and Liverpool right-back came back to grab it.
In the 39th, the defender had a similar effect at the opposite end when he found Nunez in the middle of the box and laid it off to Salah who slipped a shot with his left foot inside the near post.
The first half ended with a bang for Brentford, thanks to a Nunez piledriver and Salah’s volley from Alexander-Arnold’s delightful chipped diagonal cross over their defence. Nathan Collins also made a perfect recovery tackle in order to prevent the Uruguayan striker going one-on-1 against the goalkeeper.
The VAR was used to determine that Kostas Tsimikas cross at the near post remained playable. This decision came after the tepid celebrations of Salah following his goal.
Jota completed a dominating performance by scoring the third goal in the 74th minutes, cutting from left and firing home from outside the box.
Alisson’s save of Ethan Pinnock from a corner, and Alexander-Arnold’s goalbound header by Collins kept Liverpool in front on goal differential and added even more importance to their trip to Etihad.
