LONDON: Brentford pulled off their latest Premier League shock by beating Liverpool 3-1 at home on Monday, bringing Juergen Klopp’s side’s four-game winning streak to an end and rattling their top-four ambitions.

Liverpool’s first defeat in five league matches left them in sixth place in the standings on 28 points after 17 games, four behind fourth-placed Manchester United.

Liverpool defender Ibrahima Konate knocked the ball into his own net in the 19th minute while Yoane Wissa doubled Brentford’s advantage before halftime after his side had two goals disallowed following VAR reviews in a frantic opening 45 minutes.

Darwin Nunez struck for Liverpool early in the second half but his goal was then ruled out for offside.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain did give Liverpool hope when he headed in a fizzing cross from Trent Alexander Arnold soon after but Bryan Mbeumo clinched all three points for Brentford and their first victory against Liverpool since 1938 in the 84th minute.

The victory took Brentford up to seventh in the standings on 26 points after 18games.Liverpool could have taken the lead in the fifth minute when Nunez saw his shot cleared off the line by Ben Mee while Mbeumo was then denied down the other end by Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson Becker.

Brentford took the lead with the help of some good fortune, Konate connecting with a corner with his knee and sending the ball trickling into his own net.

Wissa thought he had doubled Brentford’s advantage when he bundled the ball into the net but the effort was ruled out as the forward had left the pitch.

There was yet more frustration for Brentford when they had a second goal disallowed after Mee deflected a Wissa shot into the net.

But just 13 seconds later, Wissa made it third time lucky by heading the ball past Alisson and over the line.

Liverpool coach Klopp took drastic action at halftime, taking off Virgil van Dijk, Harvey Elliott and Konstantinos Tsimikas. The team improved in the second half and after Oxlade-Chamberlain had reduced the deficit they hemmed Brentford into their own half in search of an equaliser.

“Virgil felt a little bit the muscle and said it is fine, and he is a very good judge of these kind of things. But I didn’t want to take any risks,” Klopp said.

“The physios looked quite happy when I said we don’t take risks. It’s not an injury, he just felt the intensity.”

But Brentford hit them on the counter attack, Christian Norgaard launching a long diagonal ball towards Mbeumo, who outmuscled Konate before slotting into the net.

Klopp said Brentford were “stretching the rules” with their pushing and holding, especially at set-pieces, and thought Bryan Mbeumo’s third goal should have been ruled out for a foul.

When asked whether he had spoken to the match officials about the issue, Klopp told beIN Sports: “Yeah, but actually that’s exactly the same as I would talk to my microwave, you get no response, really. It’s always the same.

Oxlade-Chamberlain pulled no punches saying the Reds “just weren’t good enough”.

“We just weren’t good enough,” Oxlade-Chamberlain told Liverpool’s website. “We knew it was going to be a difficult game, we knew their threat around the set-pieces and we didn’t do well enough.

“We got away with a couple with VAR ruling them out, but they were the warning signs and in the end we conceded a sloppy second goal after we sort of got away with that.”

Published in Dawn, january 4th, 2023