Liverpool’s 2-0 win over Brentford, combined with Arsenal‘s draw, left fans with plenty to be pleased about as the Reds moved six points clear with a game in hand at the top of the Premier League.
Arne Slot‘s team may have dropped points recently against Man United and Nottingham Forest, but their win over Brentford and Arsenal‘s subsequent draw against Aston Villa left the league table looking rosier at the end of the week.
As well as Saturday’s game, we discussed the various reasons why Liverpool supporters are starting to believe they will win their 20th title this season.
Here, Sam Millne (@sam_millne), Patrick Allen (@P_Allen21) and Tom Eves (@tomeves00) mull over Brentford 0-2 Liverpool and what the result means going forward.
The good…
PADDY: It is obvious really but it’s the result. We’re at that stage of the season now where we’re getting into ‘just win’ territory.
If we had come away with a point yesterday after playing quite well, in my opinion, it would have been a real kick in the teeth and further questions would’ve been asked about our title-winning capabilities.
But, as it is, we get over the line in a way that you often associate with title-winning sides.
TOM: The three points secured were vital as we couldn’t afford to go three games without a win at this stage. I thought we started the game well in contrast to how we have started games slowly at times this season.
The two goals for Darwin Nunez should bring him some confidence, so I hope he can kick on now and help us as we approach the business end of the campaign.
SAM: After a few weeks of transfer talk and a disappointing display against Man United, it has been great to see how Trent Alexander-Arnold has responded.
This has perhaps gone under the radar, but he was arguably Liverpool’s most influential player in the second half at the City Ground, and again on Saturday.
As the game went on, Slot recognised his creativity was required and the right-back began to drift infield more, like we saw under Jurgen Klopp.
Aside from the assist for Nunez’s first, he also had more touches and played more passes into the final third than anyone else on the pitch.
The bad…
SAM: It is hard to criticise the Reds after a 2-0 win that included 37 shots away from home.
But, despite the number of efforts, it did feel like Liverpool’s Luis Diaz experiment of playing him through the middle failed again.
That isn’t to say Nunez is the long-term answer, but we are reaching a point where it seems reasonable to request our strikers, whether that be Nunez or Diogo Jota, play as strikers and our wingers play as wingers.
TOM: Like Sam, I think the only concern was Diaz. He was a bit wasteful at times and was the same against Forest. He just looks out of place in the middle and it’s clear to me he is not a striker.
PADDY: I don’t think there was much wrong with yesterday’s performance, so if I had to pick something I’d probably say the wastefulness up top.
To have 37 shots and only score with your last two isn’t great, although I do think our only real clear-cut chance fell to Cody Gakpo in the first half.
That being said, missing all those chances to win it in the way we did does make it feel that little bit sweeter.
Now we have seen Arsenal drop points, how do you assess the week just gone?
SAM: Despite dropping points in two of our last three league matches, this recent run of games has almost made me more relaxed in terms of our title chances.
It feels like, no matter how many times Liverpool stutter, the rest of the league are simply poorer.
This might sound slightly negative about the Reds and it’s true, they’re not like the league-winning side of 2019/20, but it feels as though we are owed one given the multiple 90-point-plus campaigns in which we’ve finished second!
PADDY: I’d say it’s gone relatively well. The fact is, we’re in the same position we were at the start of it with two tricky aways ticked off the list.
Forest went exactly the way I thought it was going to go, and if we hadn’t won on Saturday then it would have been a worse result.
However, I can definitely stomach a point away at the league’s third-placed team considering Arsenal’s slip this weekend.
Six points clear with 17 to go and a game in hand? I’ll take that.
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