Salah must hope goal opens the floodgates

MOHAMED SALAH ended his scoring drought in spectacular fashion on Saturday

- By THEO SQUIRES

Mohamed Salah scores during the Premier League defeat to Brentford and Liverpool at the Gtech Community Stadium on Saturday night

(ALEX PANTLING)

MOHAMED SALAH ended his scoring drought in spectacular fashion on Saturday, rifling home late on on his weaker right foot away at Brentford after expertly bringing down Dominik Szoboszlai's cross.

Having missed a number of glaring opportunities in recent weeks, it was somewhat typical that the Liverpool forward was back amongst the goals when finishing such a difficult opportunity.

Alas, it made little difference for the Reds come the final whistle. The 33-year-old's strike proved to be nothing more than a consolation as Arne Slot's side fell to a 3-2 defeat.

The reigning Premier League champions dropped to seventh at the end of the weekend as a result, following four successive losses in the English topflight, and now trail league-leaders Arsenal by seven points.

And having lost five of their last six games in all competitions, any talk of mounting a successful title defence already appears over.

But after the rain, comes the rainbow. And Salah’s drought-ending strike at least offered a small ray of positivity on another dark evening in the capital.

He had failed to score in any of his last six matches for Liverpool, while his strike at Gtech Community Stadium was his first in the Premier League from open play for eight matches with his previous such effort coming on the opening day of the campaign against AFC Bournemouth.