Brentford aim to maintain their unbeaten start to the Premier League season when they host Liverpool on Saturday, with the visitors looking to bounce back from their first defeat of the campaign against Manchester City.
Keith Andrews’ side are one of only three teams yet to lose in the league, but their 2-2 draw at Aston Villa highlighted their struggles to protect leads.
Yehor Yarmolyuk opened the scoring after just 10 minutes, but Brentford dropped points from a winning position once again.
Liverpool responded to their 3-0 defeat against Manchester City with a thrilling 6-3 Champions League victory over LASK on Wednesday, with Bradley Barcola scoring his first career hat-trick.
Despite Barcola’s impressive performance, Liverpool could receive further attacking reinforcements, with Andoni Iraola not ruling out the returns of Cody Gakpo, Alexander Isak and Dominik Szoboszlai.
All three missed the defeats against Manchester City and the midweek trip to Austria because of injuries sustained on international duty.
“We have to wait and see,” he told the media on Thursday. “I think it’s still very early but the same way I said they are not available for the previous games, I leave the chance open this time, yes.”
Ryan Gravenberch will miss Saturday’s game through suspension following his red card against Manchester City. Federico Chiesa and Wataru Endo are available again after being ineligible for the Champions League clash with LASK, while Conor Bradley, Hugo Ekitike and Giovanni Leoni remain long-term absentees.
For Brentford, Kevin Schade and Jannik Schuster could feature despite picking up injuries against Aston Villa. Former Liverpool defender Sepp van den Berg has yet to play this season but was included in the matchday squad last weekend.
Nathan Collins and Mikkel Damsgaard have also been sidelined. Fourth-placed Brentford face Liverpool while sitting above them in the table for the first time since 1938.
Liverpool’s defeat to Manchester City also ended Andoni Iraola’s 23-game unbeaten Premier League run. Interestingly, Iraola has struggled against Brentford, failing to win any of his six meetings with the Bees as Bournemouth manager (D2, L4). Only against West Ham United (D6, L1) has the 44-year-old faced a team on as many occasions without recording a victory.
Iraola had overseen two wins and three draws in his first five Premier League matches as Liverpool head coach before the defeat to Manchester City. A win over Brentford would see Iraola claim his first victory against the Bees as a manager.
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