Isak's winner sinks nine-man Brentford

A red card that changed the game

Yarmolyuk's head-butt on Jacquet came right on the stroke of half-time, and the referee did not hesitate. Brentford had already gone down to ten men earlier in the half, according to the Guardian, which meant Andoni Iraola's side were staring at a second-half shift with nine players against a Liverpool team chasing an equaliser.

That is about as bad as an afternoon gets for a visiting manager, and Iraola will have known exactly what was coming once his side lost a second man before the break.

Isak delivers the moment Liverpool needed

Liverpool had been behind before the chaos arrived, and turning that deficit into a win against nine men is still a job that has to be done on the pitch. Isak was the one who finished it off, scoring the goal that sealed the comeback and gave Liverpool's front line a result to point to after a stretch of matches where goals have not come easily.

Premier League figures have Isak on 5 goals from 491 minutes so far this season, with an expected goals reading of 3.83, numbers that suggest he has been getting into the right positions even when the end product has not always followed. A winner against a Premier League opponent, whatever the circumstances, is the kind of moment that tends to loosen a forward up.

Where this leaves both clubs

The win keeps Liverpool in the top half of the table, with Slot's side sitting fifth on 12 points from seven games (3W 3D 1L). It is not the position Anfield expects by mid-October, but a comeback win against ten outfield players for most of the second half is the kind of scoreline that can settle nerves even if the underlying attacking form still needs sorting.

For Brentford, the question is less about the result and more about what Iraola takes from it. Playing a top-half side down to nine men and still competing for long enough to make Liverpool work for the winner is not nothing for a side trying to build resilience, even on a day that ends in defeat and a reduced squad for whatever comes next.