Liverpool snapped a two-game winless streak as they delivered a 3-0 victory over Brentford in the Premier League at Anfield.
A Mo Salah double and a Diogo Jota strike ensured the Reds signed off before the international break with three points in the bag and moved up to second in the table, while they maintained their 100% home record this season.
Liverpool started on the front foot with Cody Gakpo seeing a long-range effort well held by Brentford keeper Mark Flekken. Then in the sixth minute, the Bees provided a scare when the Reds failed to deal with a scramble inside their box but Ethan Pinnock shot wide.
Darwin Nunez started causing Brentford problems and had two goals disallowed for offside. The first was on 22 minutes when he controlled Dominik Szoboszlai's mishit shot and finished before an acrobatic bicycle kick was chalked off five minutes later after Virgil van Dijk saw a header well kept out.
Alisson Becker was largely a passenger in the Liverpool goal before he pulled off a wonderful save in the 32nd minute after Bryan Mbuemo broke on the counter-attack. And Liverpool would finally break the deadlock in the 39th minute through Salah. He was slipped in by Nunez and kept his cool to finish into the far post.
In stoppage-time, Salah perhaps should have doubled his tally but couldn't keep his shot down after latching on to Trent Alexander-Arnold's lofted pass.
Alisson made a routine stop to tip a Mathias Jensen free-kick over the bar six minutes into the second period. On 56 minutes, Wataru Endo, making just a second Premier League start since arriving at Liverpool in the summer, survived a VAR review after a challenge on Christian Norgaard. Brentford were just starting to get on top before Salah gave Liverpool a two-goal cushion. Kostas Tsimikas did superbly to keep the ball in play and dig a cross out from the byline, with Salah heading home at the back post.
And with 16 minutes remaining, Jurgen Klopp's men sealed all three points when Jota weaved himself some space on the edge of the box and fired into the far corner.
Brentford applied pressure from set-pieces as they aimed to reduce the arrears but Liverpool held firm before the game petered out. And after failing to win their previous two matches, Liverpool will have been delighted to have been triumphant at the final whistle and move into second. Here's how we rated the Liverpool players.
1. Alisson Becker - 8
Came up with a massive save to deny Mbuemo in a one-vs-one situation in the first half. Tipped over a Jensen free-kick after the break and made a fine stop from Pinnock.
2. Trent Alexander-Arnold - 6
Didn't get on the ball as much as he'd have perhaps hoped in the first half but played a perfectly-weighted lofted pass for Salah in the closing stages. Influenced things more in the second period before subbed in the closing stages.
3. Virgil van Dijk -
Unlucky not to have opened the scoring in the first half and breezed through the game for the most part.
4. Joel Matip - 8
Harshly booked in the first half for what seemed a fine challenge and won the ball back in the build-up to Salah's opener. Made a superb block to thwart a Mbuemo shot in the second half. Solid.