LONDON — Turn off the alarms, turn the dials back from “panic” mode, LiverpoolThe title charge is back on track. After all, they had the Premier LeagueThe Best Get Out of Jail Card: Send It Darwin Nuñez.
With the fourth official still holding up the board, this shows that there would be four minutes of added time in a hectic match at Brentfordperhaps it was fitting that Liverpool’s most chaotic footballer was the only one capable of holding his head high. A match that seemed destined to end goalless, suddenly ended as a draw. 2-0 victory for Liverpool.
Forgotten by Arne Slot for a place in the starting XI with the 9th place vacated by the injured Diogo JotaNúñez had seen his teammates show incredible profligacy in front of goal from the substitutes’ bench. By the end of the match, Liverpool had fired 37 shots on goal – their most in a match in almost nine years – but those were the last two of the match. Uruguay international which proved decisive.
Núñez would be the first to admit that he has had a poor season, limited to just seven Premier League starts. These two goals were his first in the league since November 9 and took his tally for the season to just four. This has led to speculation that he might even be allowed to leave during this transfer window. Slot might think again now.
But it’s in the latter stages of the game that Núñez comes alive. Eight of his 24 Premier League goals have come after the 75th minute. Even though Núñez was not brought in to become Liverpool’s Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, a ‘super substitute’ capable of coming on and turning a point into three has always proven vital for title-winning sides. It’s a role that Núñez seems perfectly suited to play. Indeed, since arriving in England in 2022-23, Núñez has been directly involved in more goals as a substitute than any other player (11 – seven goals, four assists).
“He scores goals,” Slot said of Núñez. “He works very hard for the team. He assists, but he competes with a lot of good players. This is why he is not present on the field for every match.
“But I’m very happy with him, not only because he scored two goals today, that helps of course. But I’m also very happy with the other performances he’s had for us.
Since the turn of the year, Liverpool have perhaps lacked the ruthless advantage that allowed them to rack up wins in the first half of the season. This was again the case in the opening 45 minutes in west London where Liverpool did everything but put the ball in the back of the Brentford net, racking up 19 goal attempts and an xG of 1.54.
In the absence of Jota, the first three of Cody Gakpo, Luis Diaz And Mohamed Salah threatened the hosts’ backline as they invented new ways to almost score a goal, each more ingenious than the last. Salah created five chances on his own, including a perfectly balanced pass into goal to present Gakpo with a one-on-one that the The Netherlands forward inexplicably missed.
Liverpool emerged into the new year as a different, slightly more panicked beast than the one that closed out 2024 with a 5-0 demolition of West Ham United. This victory at the London Stadium increased their lead to eight points and left the other challengers Arsenal firmly in the rearview mirror. In the 20 days between this match and the match at Brentford, the only team Liverpool had managed to defeat was League Two relegation candidates Accrington Stanley in the FA Cup.
Virgil van Dijk rejected the idea of a “crisis” after Tuesday’s 1-1 draw at Nottingham Forest and Slot had to prepare to face similar questions as the full-time whistle approached.
“Nothing has changed for us between now and the start of the season or the first half of the season,” Slot insisted after the game. “What you see is that at that moment it is a little more difficult for us to convert our chances into goals.
“It’s not just down to us, it’s also because teams throw themselves in front of every ball every chance we get. Lots of other teams are trying to stop us from scoring. Always. They are all in a low block.
Whether by error of design, Slot’s team regularly constructed attacks that left just two Liverpool defenders to cover potential counters from Bryan Mbeumo And Yoané Wissa. It was an invitation Brentford tried to accept at every opportunity, with Mbeumo repeatedly marauding into the space vacated by the Liverpool left-back. Kostas Tsimikas.
Bees boss Thomas Frank continues to defy the odds, finding further gains to push his side, who sit in 11th place after this defeat. They also had their own chances, with 11 shots and the Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson Becker forced to make seven stops. The home team could have kept all three points themselves before Núñez’s final game.
Watching Mbeumo is a bit like watching Salah. The quick touches of the ball with the outside of the left foot as they create their preferred shooting angle in the corner of the box look remarkably clone-like.
But it looked like a game that featured 48 shots — more than one every two minutes — was going to end scoreless. But Núñez had other ideas.
As time passes past the 90 minute mark, a nice break for Trent Alexander-Arnold saw the right-back smash a ball across the goal and Nunez divert it beyond Mark FlekkenIt’s a desperate dive. And two minutes later the score was 2-0. Núñez opened up some space in the area before scoring into the back of the net.
Núñez was mobbed in front of the screaming away fans, well aware that they could well be witnessing a crucial moment in the title race.