(Football news) Last Saturday, Liverpool defeated Burnley 3-1 to take back their rightful place atop the table, while the Bees allayed rising concerns about relegation by defeating Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-0.
With Wolves and Brentford renewing their rivalry for the fourth time in two months, it’s understandable that supporters of the former could become weary of seeing orange shirts after watching their team lose 4-1 at Molineux in December and then suffer a heartbreaking FA Cup extra-time replay loss the previous month.
Revenge was the dish of the day in the West Midlands, though, as Christian Norgaard’s close-range header propelled the Bees into the ascendancy, and after Craig Dawson’s equaliser was disallowed for a marginal offside, Ivan Toney did what he does best at the other end of the field.
An early injury to talismanic Wolves attacker Matheus Cunha certainly aided Brentford’s Molineux mission, but Thomas Frank’s men were deserved winners in gameweek 24 and have therefore risen above Crystal Palace into 14th place in the table – still a far cry from their top half-challenging days of old.
The Bees only have a six-point buffer to the drop zone at this juncture, although they boast a match in hand over all but one of the six teams below them, and Saturday’s win over Wolves was especially significant from a defensive point of view, as Brentford ended a 14-game run without a clean sheet stretching back to October.
Next on the agenda is snapping a dismal streak of rearguard form at the Gtech Community Stadium, where Frank’s men have shipped multiple goals in each of their last four Premier League contests, although only one of their last 25 top-flight home games has seen the Bees fail to register themselves.
The 1-0 loss to Arsenal earlier this month somewhat dampened Liverpool’s four-point advantage at the Emirates, where the Bees went scoreless. However, as was to be expected, Jurgen Klopp’s team responded to that setback by defeating Burnley 3-1 in front of a record-breaking Anfield crowd.
In a match characterised by aerial prowess, about 60,000 fans took to the stands to watch Diogo Jota and Dara O’Shea cancel each other out with headers in the first half. Luis Diaz and Darwin Nunez both nodded in during the second half to put Liverpool back on track right away.
After Manchester City’s midday victory over Everton temporarily knocked Klopp’s crop down to second position, his team is now two points clear of both the defending champions and Arsenal in the top spot, even though they have played one more game than Pep Guardiola’s unstoppable squad.
Thus, Liverpool’s control over the Premier League remains unattainable at this stage. Of the 18 points the Reds have lost this season, 14 have come from away from home. Nevertheless, Klopp’s dynamic attackers have yet to fail in hostile terrain this season.
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