Liverpool have done something tonight which hadn’t happened in almost 30 years; Slot won’t like it

If Liverpool are to avoid a fourth consecutive Premier League defeat tonight, they’ll have to do it the hard way.

There were just five minutes on the clock at the Gtech Community Stadium when the Reds failed to deal with a long throw-in from Brentford’s Michael Kayode, and Dango Ouattara duly took advantage to open the scoring from close range.

It’s the sixth successive game in which Arne Slot’s team have conceded the first goal, and it continues the trend of going behind early in domestic action, having also been caught out by Eddie Nketiah (nine minutes), Moises Caicedo (14 minutes) and Bryan Mbeumo (just over 60 seconds) in the past month.

Liverpool match unwelcome feat from 30 years ago

The ever-alert Opta football data editor Michael Reid was typically quick to come out with a statistic which’ll make for grim reading for everyone of a Liverpool persuasion.

Shortly after Ouattara scored, he posted on X: ‘Liverpool have conceded in the opening 15 minutes of 4 consecutive Premier League games for the first time since January 1996.’

It’s become a horrific and unsustainable habit for Liverpool

If there’s one consolation for the Reds, in that sequence almost 30 years ago – which bridged the New Year midway though the 1995/96 season – Roy Evans’ side didn’t actually lose any of the four games in which they fell behind early to Arsenal (3-1), Chelsea (2-2), Nottingham Forest (4-2) and Sheffield Wednesday (1-1).

Slot’s team showed their powers of recovery in midweek by responding to the concession of Rasmus Kristensen’s opener with five goals of their own, and they came from behind to win on numerous occasions in romping to the Premier League title last term.

However, with the champions dropping to sixth in the table by kick-off in west London, to fall behind so early on tonight will have infuriated the head coach, especially considering how poorly Liverpool dealt with the set-piece scenario which has yielded so much joy for Brentford.

The Reds left it late to win on their previous visit to the Gtech Community Stadium nine months ago, and at the time of writing there’s still ample opportunity for them to strike back and leave with victory.

Nonetheless, the habit of going behind in the first 15 minutes is unsustainable if we’re to even secure Champions League qualification, never mind trying to retain our title.

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