Liverpool vs Brentford LIVE: Premier League result and reaction after Mohamed Salah strikes to seal victory

Is now the time for fresh legs for Brentford? Yes, Thomas Frank concludes, throwing on Fabio Carvalho against his former club, as well as Mikkel Damsgaard. Keane Lewis-Potter and Mathias Jensen are replaced.

Cracking save! It’s nearly a double for Luis Diaz, Mohamed Salah getting beyond Kristoffer Ajer and pulling back to his teammate. Mark Flekken is at full stretch but manages to tip past the post.

Liverpool are beginning to move up through the gears. Pristine football sees Mohamed Salah zipping between his teammates as he exchanges pass with three of them in turn, and only a diligent Vitaly Janelt prevents him converting Alexis Mac Allister’s pass.

Trent Alexander-Arnold then strikes the woodwork directly from the corner. That’s not the first time he’s tried bending one into Mark Flekken’s exposed near post today.

That one would have done, though! It’s superb blocking from Nathan Collins again, preventing Diogo Jota from turning home Trent Alexander-Arnold’s cushioned cross.

Collins is then in action in his own box, sliding on the penalty spot to block a Mohamed Salah drive. The Liverpool forward had been flagged for a foul by one of Stuart Attwell’s assisstants seconds earlier, so it wouldn’t have counted.

For now, though, Brentford’s likeliest route to a goal might be from these set pieces. Again they play the corner short but the eventual ball in is a good’un, and Nathan Collins forces Alisson into a save, the goalkeeper flapping two hands in front of his face as if leaping at a volleyball net.

There remains good energy to this game as we tick towards the time where both managers might start to consider the options behind them on the bench. Brentford do have Kevin Schade, good last week, held in reserve if they want to change things and go with a more attacking system.

A deflected Mbeumo effort earns Brentford a corner, allowing Ajer and the rest of the large men a chance to make more leisurely progress forward. With the redwoods standing tall in a thicket in the box, it’s a surprise that Brentford play the ball short, and all the more so when they produce a meek delivery that Liverpool tonk away.

Brentford now launch from deep, Yoane Wissa and Bryan Mbeumo finding themselves in the unlikely company of Kristoffer Ajer. The giant left-back advances like a stilt-walker, though his long strides are in vain with the front two electing to ignore his charge through the centre to instead continue their adventure up the right. Eventually, it all runs out of steam.

Kept out! Not, perhaps, a traditional save from Mark Flekken, but a mightily vauable one. He takes a header from Andy Robertson right in the kisser, the Scottish full-back latching on to an overhead kick from Diogo Jota and almost scoring Liverpool’s second. A poleaxed Flekken is checked over by the medics but ok to continue, and Brentford clear the corner.