Salah Score As Liverpool Beat Brentford 4-1
Mohamed Salah scored on his return from injury as Liverpool beat Brentford to maintain their lead at the top of the Premier League.
Salah, back from a hamstring problem sustained on Egypt duty at the Africa Cup of Nations, got on the scoresheet with a crisp finish.
Ivan Toney pulled a goal back for Brentford, but Cody Gakpo added the gloss for Liverpool with a late strike.
The victory temporarily sent Liverpool five points clear at the summit, but Arsenal’s 5-0 victory over Burnley later in the day reduced the deficit to two points again.
Defending champions Manchester City can also move to within two points of the Reds if they beat Chelsea in the day’s late kick-off.
The only sour points for Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp from the win at the Gtech Community Stadium were more additions to a lengthening injury list.
Curtis Jones and Diogo Jota were taken off before half-time, while Nunez was substituted at the interval.
“We have to see how much it costs us – we don’t know that yet,” Klopp said of the injuries.
“Curtis got a knock on the lower part of his shin, or above the ankle. We will see what that means. It was what he felt, but he was not 100 per cent sure. That Curtis cannot play on tells you that it must be something because he would have played on at all costs.
“Diogo looks probably the worst; I didn’t see it back but I heard the pictures didn’t look great as well, so we have to see there.
“Darwin, we took off because he felt really a little [something] but that was obviously today enough to immediately push the brake and that’s what we did, so we took him off.”
This was a victory which oozed class as Liverpool, who might have identified this as a potentially tricky assignment, bid to win a 20th league title.
Nunez delivered its standout moment as he broke clear to latch on to Jota’s header and then produced a breathtaking finish.
The Uruguayan audaciously chipped the ball over Mark Flekken as the goalkeeper narrowed the angle.
It is easy to envisage Nunez as the architect of chaos, inferring much of what he does is instinctive rather than calculated.
Yet here he showed here his intelligence and composure to set Liverpool on their way.
Klopp and his coaching staff have undoubtedly polished a player who was a rough diamond when he signed for £64m from Benfica in 2022.
Liverpool’s Anfield showdown with City on 10 March hangs ominously on the horizon.
It feels somewhat inevitable that Nunez and City striker Erling Haaland will be the central figures leading into that encounter.
