Salah scores in Brentford win as Liverpool maintain perfect start

Liverpool beat Brentford 2-0 on Sunday afternoon at Anfield to maintain their perfect start to the 2024/25 English Premier League season.

The Reds found the opener after 13 minutes when Luis Diaz got on the finishing end of a breathtaking counter.

This was the third consecutive time that the Colombian scored Liverpool’s home opener, having done so against Bournemouth last season and Crystal Palace during the 2022/23 campaign.

On the front foot, Mohamed Salah wrapped up a perfect afternoon for the hosts with a goal in the 70th minute.

This was Liverpool’s second successive league win of the season after their 2-0 victory over Ipswich Town on the opening weekend, and their first home win under new manager Arne Slot.

With two goals in two games, Salah currently sits third in the race for the EPL Golden Boot, a goal behind Chelsea’s Noni Madueke, and two behind Manchester City’s Erling Haaland.

Sunday’s victory ensured Liverpool joined Arsenal, Brighton & Hove Albion, and Manchester City as the only teams to have won their first two Premier League matches this season.

Nevertheless, despite all four teams being level on six points, Pep Guardiola’s side narrowly leads the table on goal difference.

Soccer betting sites are paying $2.20 outright odds for Manchester City to defend their Premier League crown for the fifth consecutive time, ahead of Arsenal (+162) and Liverpool (+550).

Speaking after the victory, Arne Slot was quite pleased by Liverpool’s performance.

“Our defensive performance today was really good. The only two small chances, one of them was big, were out of a set-piece,” said the Liverpool boss.

“We controlled the counter attacks, we controlled them in their build-up. Apart from that, we created many good chances in the second half.”

Arne Slot also attributed his side’s performance to maintaining the key philosophies of former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, who ended his nine-year spell at the club at the end of last season.

“If I’m honest, I think most players are quite used to what we want. But then it has a lot to do with us doing not so many things different to what Jurgen did in the past,” he said.

“So there are only slight changes maybe but most of it is the same. So if we lose the ball, how aggressive we are, how hard we run back because they don’t want to concede.”

Liverpool head to Old Trafford next Sunday, where they are -120.48 favourites to beat Manchester United (+294) with the leading betting sites.

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