Republic of Ireland connections were out of luck in the Premier League in the seventh round of games over the weekend. Most prominently of all, Brentford, under Dublin-born manager Keith Andrews, lost their first game of the season in fairly controversial circumstances against visitors Liverpool. The Bees were 1-0 up in the game on the cusp of half-time when Yehor Yarmoliuk was adjudged by the ref to have engaged in "headbutting action” against Reds defender Jeremy Jacquet. It proved to be the pivotal moment of the game with Liverpool coming back to win 2-1 in the second half, via the equalizer from Victor Munoz after 62 minutes, and the winner from Alexander Isak in the 70th.
Having lost the returning Dominik Szoboszlai in the first half, with the Hungarian appearing to have a recurrence of his hamstring injury, the involvement of Florian Wirtz and Bradley Barcola with goal assists will have been pleasing to Liverpool boss Andoni Iraola. The big-money signings of this and last season are beginning to click, and the Reds faithful are pleased, too, that the new manager is using academy products such as Rio Ngumoha rather more than his predecessor. There are pundit murmurings, though, that the club has spent too much on too few players and the squad is lacking in depth.
The one academy player Arne Slot did use a lot, Northern Ireland’s Conor Bradley, has been injured since January. The word is that the County Tyrone man could be out the full 12 months, but that the club management is committed to keeping his right-back place for him.
Andrews is hoping Nathan Collins will be ready soon to slot back into the Brentford defense in front of fellow Irishman Caoimhin Kelleher in the goal, but his availability issues weren’t helped by the expulsion of Vitaly Janelt for a second yellow in the dying minutes of the Liverpool game.
As the Bees head to a meeting with Hull City, the media is behind Andrews, whose side they feel were cheated by a less than impressive Liverpool and the provocative antics of defender Jacquet. At Hull, the London side will face veteran John Egan, while captain Dara O’Shea’s Ipswich Town host Nottingham Forest on Friday night. Those Irishman will both be aiming after weekend losses to recover some of the unexpected momentum their teams got in the early stages of the season.
That other Irish defender in the Premier League, Everton’s Jake O’Brien, would like a start, but in last weekend’s home defeat to Chelsea he didn’t even get called on a sub. He’s been at least partly out of favor with boss David Moyes, it seems, since his demand that he be moved into the center of the defense or else he’d look elsewhere. The Toffees visit the champions Arsenal on Saturday afternoon and it will interesting to see if the big Corkman gets any playing time.
Premier League results: Bournemouth 2, Sunderland 0; Brighton 5, Crystal Palace 0; Everton 0, Chelsea 2; Brentford 1, Liverpool 2; Fulham 1, Hull 0; Leeds Utd 1, Manchester Utd 1; Manchester City 3, Ipswich Town 2; Newcastle Utd 0, Aston Villa 2; Nottingham Forest 0, Arsenal 1; Tottenham 3, Coventry City 1.
