*Chelsea Pummeled
By Jonathan Wilson, at Gtech Community Stadium & Jamie Jackson,at Old Trafford
Victory in Frankfurt on Wednesday, it turns out, was only temporary respite.
Liverpool didn’t just slip to a fourth league defeat in a row for the first time since February 2021, but were thoroughly outplayed and outfought by hosts Brentford today, 25 October.
The anxious period of stoppage time the home side endured was out of keeping with everything that had gone before.
Brentford tend naturally to a direct approach anyway, but Arne Slot’s grumbling last week about Manchester United’s long balls was an open invitation. Liverpool never got to grips with the pace of Kevin Schade running in behind their back four, and they looked uncomfortable as well against Michael Kayode’s fusillade of long throws.
Liverpool’s Weakness
Every side now knows that Liverpool are vulnerable to balls played in behind their full-backs.
The opening goal, scored after five minutes, stemmed from a Kayode throw, but that was the result of Giorgi Mamardashvili, mopping up as Schade chased behind Conor Bradley. It was already the second time he had done so.
Some long throw specialists rely on power, the body contorted to become a grunting trebuchet, but just as the fastest bowlers or the golfers who drive the ball furthest tend to be the most graceful, so Kayode seems to generate his distance with rhythm. There is a lithe fluidity to his run up and release, the trajectory oddly flat, more metal wood than seven iron.
Some long throws are dangerous because they drop so slowly that it’s difficult for defenders to achieve distance with a clearing header, but not Kayode’s.
His deliveries scud on a low parabola, a more accurate version of a cross from the same position. Kristoffer Ajer flicked on and Dango Ouattara smashed in a falling volley with Liverpool’s defence apparently mesmerised.
Brentford’s Second
It was Schade’s pace that brought the second on the stroke of half-time. Hugo Ekitiké lost possession and Mikkel Damsgaard, who would twice be denied by spectacular saves from Mamardashvili, opened Liverpool up with a typically incisive through-ball, Ibrahima Konaté effectively giving up the chase before Schade beat the keeper.
Full-back has been a problem position for Liverpool this season, especially on the left where Milos Kerkez looks nothing like the thrusting player he did at Bournemouth last season.
He wasted possession repeatedly, confidence fraying, as well as collecting a needless booking, but he did slam in a low Bradley cross deep in first-half stoppage time.
Brentford’s players and fans protested about how long the half had been allowed to go on for – too long, it turned out, for the referee Simon Hooper who had to be replaced for the second period.
But if their fear was that the goal had offered Liverpool a lifeline, it was misplaced. The home side continued to dominate and extended the lead when a foul given for Virgil van Dijk’s kick on Ouattara was deemed to have taken place inside the box. Igor Thiago converted the penalty.
Liverpool’s Response
Slot responded with a flurry of substitutions, most of them forwards.
By the 70th minute, Liverpool were playing a sort of 4-1-5, with Florian Wirtz and Federico Chiesa as shuttling inside forwards. Chiesa has now played more league minutes this season than he did in the entirety of last.
Wirtz, meanwhile, continues to frustrate. He has not been as bad as some have made out but, equally, when a player arrives for £116m there is always going to be expectation, and when he is a forward who fails to score or register an assist in his first eight league games, that is transformed into pressure.
Back in the middle for the first time in the league since the 1-0 win over Burnley in mid-September, he looked visibly tense and, when a chance fell his way midway through the first half, he snatched at it. But he is not the only one out of sorts.
Mohamed Salah had barely been involved when he gathered Dominik Szoboszlai’s cross with a fine first touch and lashed a shot in off the underside of the bar with a minute remaining.
Even that seemed to come from nothing, the result of a moment of Brentford carelessness rather than of concerted Liverpool pressure.
There were understandable nerves as the line approached, but despite another extended period of stoppage time, and a corner given for goalie Caoimhín Kelleher wasting time, Brentford finished as they had been throughout: by far the superior side.
Man U Build Momentum, Sink Brighton
A Ruben Amorim pirouette and revolving fist-pump greeted Bryan Mbeumo putting Manchester United 3-0 up and told the tale of how precious this third consecutive league victory is.
Yet the goal came on 61 minutes and still United found themselves clinging on at 3-2 deep into added time before Mbeumo smashed home his second. Almost instantly Anthony Taylor blew for time and “Glory, Glory Man United” blared out at Old Trafford.
So Brighton, winners of three of the last four meetings, motor back to the south coast defeated and Amorim’s team are starting to build some momentum. They are fourth overnight, thanks to Liverpool losing at Brentford.
The Portuguese was not happy at the late near-capitulation but can be content with how his tactic of having Luke Shaw move up from left centre-back to harry Georginio Rutter led to Mbuemo’s first strike having already played a part in Casemiro’s goal.
Shaw certainly looked to have fouled the No 10 in the build-up but, with the video assistant referee uninterested, Mbeumo raced on to a cute Benjamin Sesko pass to fire a 20-yard finish which went through Lewis Dunk’s legs and beat Bart Verbruggen to the goalkeeper’s left.
Cut to the head coach’s celebration and verses of “Ruben Amorim, Ruben Amorim” from the ecstatic home fans, who heralded at the close a third consecutive Premier League win in the same season for a first time since February 2024.
But this was confirmed only after Patrick Dorgu’s pulling down of Yankuba Minteh precipitated United conceding twice.
First, Danny Welbeck blazed a free-kick beyond Senne Lammens, the United goalkeeper surely disappointed not to deal with it better as the ball went at him rather than for a corner. In added time James Milner’s corner from the right caught United slumbering and the unmarked Charalampos Kostoulas headed in.
Positive Vibes For Utd
In all this were signs of the project in progress United still are, but it finished as a good day’s work that began with two penalty shouts being turned down by Taylor.
An Amad Diallo jink past Maxim De Cuyper caused the left-back to clip him but the referee was unmoved – to home ire. Further fury followed when Dunk seemed to grab Mbeumo in the area.
Amorim spoke of attitude being key and his men kept on and got their reward. The ball dropped to Bruno Fernandes, whose instant no-look pass to Casemiro was a moment to grace a 300th United appearance.
The Brazilian tapped the ball left to his compatriot Matheus Cunha and a touch to tee it up was followed by a superb curling finish that skimmed past Verbruggen’s fingertips into the bottom left corner.
This was the £62.5m summer signing’s first goal, in his 10th appearance. If “about time” is a fair call on the strike’s arrival, United’s delight soon doubled as Amorim’s deployment of Shaw as a pickpocket hit the first jackpot.
A Jan Paul van Hecke pass aimed for Rutter was nicked from him by Shaw. Casemiro took aim from 25-yards, the ball deflected off Yasin Ayari, left Verbruggen stranded, and in rolled United’s second.
United were cruising and it should have been even better by the break. Slick interplay involving Fernandes put Sesko in but he sliced wildly off target from only yards out.
Rutter did the same at the other end, though he may have been hurt moments before, impeding his movement. There was, though, zero excuse for the amateurish effort Carlos Baleba ballooned over as the second half began – hardly a prime advert for a player wanted by United in the previous window.
Seconds later, Fernandes showed Baleba how it should be done. Cunha found Diallo deep in Brighton’s area, he picked his captain out, and Fernandes’s pile-driver stung Verbruggen’s palms. The Brighton keeper made another routine save from Sesko while Lammens had to be far more alert when a curving Minteh cross missed everyone and was sneaking into the right corner before the keeper tipped it out.
So United’s only home outing in a period of 50 days, with no fixtures at Old Trafford until 24 November, ended in victory: a fine way to sign off.
OTHER RESULTS IN DOMESTIC LEAGUES ACROSS EUROPE:
ENGLAND: Premier League
Chelsea – Sunderland 1:2
Newcastle – Fulham 2:1
Manchester Utd – Brighton 4:2
Brentford – Liverpool 3:2
FRANCE: Ligue 1
Brest – PSG 0:3
Monaco – Toulouse 1:0
Lens – Marseille 2:1
GERMANY: Bundesliga
Augsburg – RB Leipzig 0:6
B. Monchengladbach – Bayern Munich 0:3
Eintracht Frankfurt – St. Pauli 2:0
Hamburger SV – Wolfsburg 0:1
Hoffenheim – Heidenheim 3:1
Dortmund – FC Koln 1:0
ITALY: Serie A
Parma – Como 0:0
Udinese – Lecce 3:2
Napoli – Inter 3:1
Cremonese – Atalanta 1:1
NETHERLANDS: Eredivisie
Sittard – Groningen 1:2
Sparta Rotterdam – Telstar 1:0
FC Volendam – Heracles 3:0
Zwolle – Nijmegen 2:2
SPAIN: LaLiga
Girona – R. Oviedo 3:3
Espanyol – Elche 1:0
Ath Bilbao – Getafe 0:1
Valencia – Villarreal 0:2
*PHOTO CAPTION: Manchester Utd’s Mbeumo (right) scores again… today.
