In addition to scoring and providing an assist off the bench on his comeback, Mohamed Salah endured a potential triple injury blow as Liverpool defeated Brentford 4-1 to maintain their lead in the Premier League.
Late in the first half, Darwin Nunez’s chip completed a devastating counter for Liverpool’s opening goal. However, they did lose Diogo Jota to an ambulance and Curtis Jones to an injury just outside the goal. Nunez also left the game at halftime due to a minor niggle.
After nearly a month out injured, Salah came in for Jota and settled in after the break, setting up Alexis Mac Allister for Liverpool’s second goal before adding their third to take the lead. Brentford’s Ivan Toney managed to get one back, but Cody Gakpo of Liverpool scored the game’s final goal thanks to a Nathan Collins error.
Ahead of Sunday’s Carabao Cup final at Wembley against Chelsea, Liverpool will anxiously await word on the severity of those injuries, since Trent Alexander-Arnold, Dominik Szoboszlai, and Alisson are already listed as out. On Wednesday, they play Luton in the league as well.
After winning in west London, Liverpool had jumped to the top of the table five points ahead, but Arsenal’s 5-0 victory later reduced their lead to two points.
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said that Jones left the stadium on crutches after the win but that Jota’s injury appears to be the worst on first inspection.
“Curtis Jones got a knock above his ankle. He wasn’t 100 per cent sure what it was. The fact Curtis could not play on tells you something because he would have played on at all costs.
“Diogo Jota looks the worst. I didn’t see it back but I heard the pictures [of the incident] didn’t look great. We have to see there.
“Darwin Nunez we took off because he said he felt something very little.”
“The performance level could have dropped (after the injuries), but it was the other way around.
“We played an exceptional game, by far the best game we’ve played at Brentford. Dealing with all the specific situations they create, and being as dominated you can somehow be, be calm in the right moments, be direct in the right moments, use their man-marking, play against the line. All these kind of things. I saw a top game.”
On Salah’s return, he added: “Mo played the first game for weeks. He could have had a hat-trick. The goal he scored was absolutely outstanding. Cody’s goal was absolutely outstanding as well.
“You can count the games coming up. It would be helpful if we had a bit more than one (player) for each position. But it’s all fine. That’s the situation and we cannot change it.
“I can’t remember one day here that it was easy, no problems at all. We have problems. We don’t know exactly how big they are. As long as we have 11 players we will go for it.”
Meanwhile Brentford boss Thomas Frank said:
“I thought we were brilliant the first 35 minutes, the best team, created a lot of good moments,” he said. “We should have showed more coolness to create bigger chances.
“We concede the first goal, we knew we were facing a team who are probably the best in the world at transitions.
“It was the first goal we’ve conceded from an offensive set-piece in two years.”
Brentford travel to City midweek before travelling to West Ham on Monday. While Liverpool also play midweek against Luton before playing their Carabao Cup match against Chelsea.
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