Brentford-Liverpool is a match for the nineteenth day of the Premier League and is played on Monday at 18:30: predictions.
The Premier League doesn’t take a break. The nineteenth day, the last of the first half of the season – although several teams have to make up the matches postponed last September for public order reasons due to Queen Elizabeth’s funeral – starts twenty-four hours after the match between Nottingham Forest and Chelsea that closed the eighteenth round.
Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool, who on Friday beat Leicester in a comeback (2-1) thanks to two resounding own goals from Belgian defender Faes (incidentally one of the few in the history of the tournament besides former Liverpool captain Jamie Carragher). For the Reds it was their fourth league win in a row after wins in November against Tottenham and Southampton and against Aston Villa on Boxing Day. Although Salah and his team-mates did not excel in possession against the Foxes, wasting a large number of chances as usual, they seem to have found the continuity they had lacked in the first half of the season: the gap to fourth place remains four – Manchester United, now in fourth place, are also on a winning streak – and fifth-placed Tottenham are within touching distance.
Everything ready for Gakpo’s debut
Klopp hopes to be able to count on new signing Cody Gakpo, who has arrived from Psv Eindhoven but is still struggling with work permit paperwork.
Dasilva
Brentford coach Thomas Frank, on the other hand, is smiling after examinations ruled out any serious injuries for his goal scorer Ivan Toney: the striker, who has scored 12 Premier League goals, is expected to play regularly. However, Liverpool will have to be careful. The Bees are in fact one of the most beautiful realities of this Premier League: they haven’t lost for five rounds, on Friday they went to win 2-0 at home of West Ham and they have peeped in the left side of the standings. In front of their home crowd they have only lost one game, against leaders Arsenal in September.
The Prediction
Toney or no Toney, Liverpool are likely to get a goal. Brentford are proving to be a tough nut for anyone, last year in London ended in a pyrotechnic 3-3 draw and then this season the Reds defence is far from solid. It’s going to be an entertaining and wide-open game, although Klopp’s men are on the upswing and should come away with the three points.
Brentford-Liverpool’s likely line-up
- BRENTFORD (3-5-2): Raya; Zanka, Mee, Pinnock; Roerslev, Dasilva, Jensen, Norgaard, Henry; Mbeumo, Wissa.
- LIVERPOOL (4-3-3): Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Konaté, van Dijk, Tsimikas; Thiago Alcantara, Fabinho, Keita; Salah, Darwin Nunez, Fabio Carvalho.
POSSIBLE RESULT: 1-2
