Arne Slot out to achieve Liverpool Premier League first in Brentford clash

Liverpool manager Arne Slot could achieve a Premier League feat that no Reds boss has ever achieved before in Sunday's Premier League showdown against Brentford.

The Dutchman oversaw a straightforward 2-0 success away to newly-promoted Ipswich Town last weekend, where goals from Mohamed Salah and Diogo Jota did the damage at Portman Road.

Liverpool came under the cosh momentarily against their newly-promoted hosts, but as Kieran McKenna's men faded in the second period, the Merseyside giants ruthlessly capitalised.

In doing so, Slot became the first Liverpool head coach in 26 years to win their opening Premier League match, a feat previously achieved by Gerard Houllier in 1998, when he was alongside Roy Evans in the dugout.

Should Liverpool also get the job done against Brentford on Sunday afternoon, Slot would become the only Reds boss to have won his first two league fixtures in the Premier League era.

© Reuters

Slot out to match Graeme Souness feat for Liverpool

No manager has won their first two league matches in charge of the Reds since Graeme Souness did so in April 1991, one year before the First Division became the Premier League.

After Houllier and Evans oversaw a 2-1 victory over Southampton in their inaugural game in 1998, they were denied a second straight win by Arsenal, who held Liverpool to a goalless draw at Anfield.

In subsequent seasons, Rafael Benitez, Roy Hodgson, Kenny Dalglish, Brendan Rodgers and Jurgen Klopp all failed to win their opening Premier League matches at the Reds helm, and the latter last oversaw two wins at the start of a season in 2021-22.

However, that victorious sequence coincidentally started with Liverpool overcoming a team from East Anglia - beating Norwich City 3-0 - and their head-to-head record against Brentford makes for extremely pleasant reading.

Indeed, Liverpool are on an eight-game winning run in home matches against Brentford, including matches in the Premier League, FA Cup, EFL Cup and First Division, and have not lost at home to the Bees since 1939.

Slot issues rallying cry to fans ahead of Brentford showdown

© Imago

Speaking to the media in his pre-match press briefing, Slot affirmed that he was not "nervous" about the prospect of his first Anfield Premier League home game but implored Liverpool fans to make twice the amount of noise as they did at Portman Road.

"It's not going to be the first taste because we played Sevilla already, but it's clear that it's the first league game at Anfield. [I'm] looking forward to it but I'm looking forward to every game I've played in the past as a manager and also to this one," Slot said.

"I hope [the fans] are twice as loud as the Ipswich crowd because the Ipswich crowd was really, really, really loud. I'm hoping the fans can be twice as loud then as the Ipswich ones – that would be a big help for us.

"But no, I'm not nervous at all, certainly not at this moment because I'm in the middle of preparing the team for Sunday. No, nerves are not there. It wouldn't be a good thing. If you've got nerves then you probably don't trust what you did before, you just don't trust your team. I trust what we as a staff do during the whole week to prepare the team in the best possible way and I trust the team a lot as well – again on Sunday."

Slot should be working with a near fully-fit squad for Sunday's game, although he has confirmed that one of his starters from last week is a doubt due to a training injury.

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