Long live The King! The Egyptian King
Liverpool 1 Brentford 0, 6th May 2023.
Liverpool 1 Brentford 0, 6th May 2023.
LIVERPOOL 1 (Salah 13)
BRENTFORD 0
On a day that the country celebrated the coronation of a new King and cheered him through the streets of London in a solid gold coach (a solid gold coach!), a hundred plus miles away in the Socialist Republic of Liverpool the faithful made their voices heard by anointing their own King, and an Egyptian King that has long since been taken to their Red hearts. Mo Salah’s 13th minute goal was not only enough to secure Liverpool’s sixth consecutive Premier League win (and by an aggregate of 17 goals scored against 7 conceded) but it was also the occasion of the coronation of a century of goals for the current King at Anfield, and in front of his most dutiful supporting subjects.
The evening’s other century maker came at the other end of the fields of Anfield Road in the guise of their Brazilian goalkeeping custodian with the most magnificent of beards, Alisson Becker, as he racked up his 100th clean sheet for the Reds in a game that threatened to come to the boil in a competitive first half but rather fizzled away in the second.
In truth, the Reds of Liverpool only really played for the opening third of the game where they were back to their old selves, niggly, competitive and most of all, physical. Ibrahima Konaté, Virgil van Dijk, Cody Gakpo and Darwin Núñez were all to the fore with feisty challenges that ensured the visiting “Bees” of Brentford knew they were in for a game. Salah’s bundled home effort on 13 minutes capped a dominating first quarter of an hour from the Reds they’d go on to comprehensively control until the half hour mark when, as with Tottenham Hotspur just six days ago, they simply stopped playing. But with Brentford only going close with Ivan Toney’s 38th minute free-kick that fizzed just wide of the goal, they rarely if ever threatened to dirty Alisson Becker’s impending century making clean sheet. Bryan Mbeumo’s 40th minute breakaway goal was, in the beautiful vernacular of football, “chalked off” by the ugly eye in the sky of VAR, and rightly so for offside, and the visitors from West London rarely posed a real attacking threat from thereon in.
The same accusation could be levelled at a Liverpool team who themselves were rather powder puff in attack. Darwin Núñez should have scored from a delicious curled through ball from Trent Alexander-Arnold on the half hour and it was the young Liverpudlian who forced the only real save from visiting goalkeeper David Raya with a rasping drive with 13 minutes remaining. Aside from this? The second half was rather a non-event but the shrill of the fussy and dreadful Anthony Taylor’s whistle at full-time signalled the second 1–0 home win in 4 days, and the third win inside 6 busy footballing days for the Reds of Liverpool.
All hail the King! The Egyptian King.
Although the Reds have played two games more than both Newcastle United and Manchester United, the gap is now just one and three points respectively and one can only hope when remembering that a certain Manchester United manager once remarked that the only way his side could eclipse that of the all time King of Anfield Road, Kenny Dalglish, that the team he managed would have to do a “Devon Loch” of horse racing fame, and fall flat on their face when streets ahead and the finishing line in sight.
One can but hope.
Time will tell.
It always does.
Thanks for reading. There is a wealth of past and present articles on Liverpool FC within my library here or alternatively, here are my three most recently published articles from this season:
Salah penalty enough for routine Reds win
Liverpool 1 Fulham 0, 3rd May 2023.medium.com
Sword of Damocles anyone?
Liverpool 4 Tottenham Hotspur 3, 30th April 2023.medium.com
Los Blancos Reds with vital comeback win in the Capital
West Ham United 1 Liverpool 2, 26th April 2023.medium.com