BRENTFORD, England — Brentford sealed their first victory over Liverpool since 1938 with a 3-1 win at Gtech Community Stadium on Monday, which dealt a fresh blow to the Reds’ hopes of a top-four finish in the Premier League to qualify for the Champions League.
Ibrahima Konate‘s 19th-minute own goal and Yoane Wissa‘s 42nd-minute header gave the home side a deserved lead as Liverpool made a dreadful start.
Although Liverpool improved after the restart, halving the deficit through Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain‘s first goal in almost a year on 50 minutes, they were unable to make their dominance in possession pay and Bryan Mbeumo sealed a famous win six minutes from full-time.
With the result, Liverpool finished the day 15 points adrift of first-place Arsenal in the Premier League and ahead of Brentford in sixth place.
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Rapid reaction
1. Liverpool lose ground in Premier League race
A new year but an old feeling: another night when finishing in the top four just got a little harder for Liverpool.
The Reds keep making the task harder for themselves than needed — Monday was the 13th time in 26 matches across all competitions this season that they have conceded the first goal as part of a dreadful first-half performance.
Liverpool would have been eyeing up a chance to move past Tottenham into fifth place, but could they now fall seven points off the top four, depending on results elsewhere over the next few days.
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It will place further pressure on both new signing Cody Gakpo to hit the ground running and the club in general to back Klopp further in the transfer market. The Liverpool boss has made it clear the club “cannot splash the cash” this month, particularly while new owners are sought and so answers may have to be found within. Gakpo, 23, will be expected to score goals.
The Reds did at least improve after half-time, but ending with 72.5% possession and just one goal was indicative of a team functioning well below par at both ends of the pitch.
2. Liverpool struggle with and without Van Dijk
Virgil van Dijk has long been the rock upon which Liverpool have founded their success but the usually assured Dutchman was way below his best here.
With Liverpool fortunate only to be 2-0 down at the break — two further goals were ruled out for offside — Klopp made a triple change which saw Joel Matip, Andy Robertson and Naby Keita replace Van Dijk, Harvey Elliott and Konstantinos Tsimikas.
Klopp probably would have changed all 11 if he could but the sight of Van Dijk being withdrawn was particularly striking, even if Klopp later insisted it was a precautionary change due to risk of injury. It was the first time Van Dijk had been taken off after 45 minutes since a pre-planned substitution in an EFL Cup tie against League One Lincoln City in September 2020.
Liverpool’s defending did improve some after the break, but Konate was beaten too easily by Mbeumo for Brentford‘s third goal.
