MOHAMED Salah scored twice as Liverpool maintained their 100% winning record at Anfield this season with a 3-0 victory over Brentford, their sixth successive Premier League win at home.
Salah – who now has 200 goals in English football – became the first player in history to score in each of Liverpool’s first six home league games of a season as Juergen Klopp’s side climbed over Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal into second in the table on 27 points after 12 games.
“(Salah) is always there, is a goal threat, creates chances and is really important for us like everyone knows. Congratulations to him on his 200th goal,” Diogo Jota, Liverpool’s other scorer on the day, said.
“It’s still early doors,” he added on the title race. “We need to keep winning to be able to be in that title fight towards the end. It is a long road.”
Brentford, who saw their three-match winning run end, are 10th on 16 points.
Darwin Nunez had two first-half efforts disallowed for offside as the sense of an impending goal grew.
“Outstanding. Outstanding,” Klopp said of Nunez’s performance. “Everyone can see. Look at him how he kept the ball for us, who would of thought that last year, that he could do that for us?
“Work-rate was insane.”
Talisman Salah finally broke the deadlock in the 39th minute after Trent Alexander-Arnold drilled a pass to Nunez who slipped it to Salah behind Brentford’s defence for a left-footed finish into the far corner.
The 31-year-old Salah headed in his second at the back post in the 62nd minute after Kostas Tsimikas slid to keep the ball in play on the byline. Jota scored in the 74th when he cut inside and bent the ball into the far corner past keeper Mark Flekken.
Nunez’s disallowed goals came within a few minutes of each other. His first was offside by just a toe, and his second was an overhead kick that would have been terrific had it counted.
Luis Diaz, whose father was released on Thursday after enduring nearly two weeks of captivity by guerrillas, received a standing ovation when he came on as a substitute late in the game.
Brentford were not without their chances, and Bryan Mbeumo was one-on-one with Alisson Becker in the first half but his effort was saved by the Liverpool keeper.
Manager Thomas Frank was angry about what he believed should have been a red card for Wataru Endo’s tackle on captain Christian Norgaard.
“Pictures of clear studs on Norgaard’s leg with blood and everything,” Frank said.
Frank’s side have been holding their own in the Premier League despite the absence of striker Ivan Toney. The team’s top scorer in each of the last three seasons is serving an eight-month ban for breaching betting rules, and cannot return to action until January 16.
