The Premier League title was already in the bag the only other time Arne Slot’s side started a top-flight game without either Ryan Gravenberch or Alexis Mac Allister helping anchor the midfield. But if there wasn’t much riding on the trip to Chelsea in May, this latest visit to London was an altogether different matter.

It says much about Mac Allister’s struggles this season there were few eyebrows raised when, with Ryan Gravenberch out injured, Dominik Szoboszlai and Curtis Jones lined up as the central duo in the engine room at Eintracht Frankfurt in midweek.

The emphatic victory and impressive showing by both players meant Slot was happy to stick with the duo here at Brentford for a more physical, intense examination of their respective defensive nous.

OPINION

OPINION

And they were perhaps the only two Liverpool players who regularly stood up to the hosts, Szoboszlai in particular impressing even before his...