England Premier League
Saturday 17th February 2024
Kick off at 12:30pm GMT
Venue: Brentford Community Stadium
Match Preview:
Thomas Frank’s Brentford are already preparing for life without forward Ivan Toney as it was announced that Igor Thiago the 22 year old Brazilian will join the club at the end of the season. He will be hoping that he will be doing so with them in the top flight and the club did themselves some favours last weekend as they beat Wolves 2-0 away from home to ease some fears. This win which is their seventh of the campaign has pushed the club up to 14th place and with 25 points and they are six clear of the relegation zone.
Brentford have seen 3 defeats in their past five games and many will feel that they will lose this game at the weekend. At home Frank’s team have lost 5 games- their majority result and this includes recent poor form losing three of their last four games here with defeats against Aston Villa, Wolves and in their last game they were beaten 3-1 against Manchester City.
Liverpool are in 1st place but the question remains how long can they stay there with Manchester City’s form so rampant? For now the Reds have a 2 point gap to City and they bounced back after losing to Arsenal to ease past Burnley 3-1 at home. With City playing later in the day Liverpool could pull out a 5 point psychological gap with victory here. But a loss would feel unbearable as the Reds could well end up in 3rd place by Saturday evening if that happened. Liverpool have won 50% of their games on the road and have the 3rd best record in the league with 22 points from a possible 36 but of course they did lose their last away game although perhaps that was expected being against Arsenal, for now the club has only lost 2 games on the road and both times it was in London.
Team News:
Brentford: Frank Onyeka and Yoane Wissa are back from international duty but will both be assessed. Bryan Mbeumo is still three weeks away from a return due to an ankle injury. Rico Henry, Joshua Dasilva, Aaron Hickey and Kevin Schade are all out long term with no fixed return dates.
Liverpool: Trent Alexander-Arnold will miss out due to an ankle injury, Mohamed Salah could be assessed but may miss out as he tries to recover from a hamstring injury. Dominik Szoboszlai is a major doubt with a muscle injury. Stefan Bajcetic, Ben Doak and Thiago Alcantara remain sidelined and Joel Matip is likely out for the season with a knee injury.
Brentford vs Liverpool Head to Head:
Last season Brentford won this fixture 3-1.
Earlier in the season in the reverse fixture Liverpool won 3-0.
Liverpool have scored 11 goals past Brentford in the last five meetings.
Brentford vs Liverpool Prediction:
Brentford remain a side with steel because we know that they can raise their game for the better teams but there have been some glaring worries at home and their recent home form has simply not been good enough. You would expect Liverpool to come here and win, but they lost this fixture last season and some key injury worries are creeping up on the club. This is a match where they need to hold their nerve because there is a chance of the club losing their grip on 1st place, and who knows if that happens if they will return to the summit again with not just Manchester City challenging but Arsenal also.
We do expect Liverpool to find a way to win and dig deep but we expect the game to be a close one and that is why possibly backing the home side on the handicap could be the way to go in finding some decent value in what may well be a more competitive game than some observers would have you think.
Brentford vs Liverpool Betting Tips:
Handicap: Brentford to beat Liverpool with a +2 goal start at 1.50
Under 3.5 goals at 1.62
Anytime goalscorer: Darwin Nunez at 2.25
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