Liverpool matched their worst-ever Premier League run as they sunk to a 3-2 defeat at Brentford on Saturday for their fourth consecutive league loss.

Despite appearing to put an end to their disastrous run of form with a 5-1 crushing of Eintracht Frankfurt in the Champions League on Wednesday, the Premier League title holders found themselves behind after just five minutes in west London.

After Dango Ouattara's early strike, Kevin Schade made it 2-0 to the hosts on 45 minutes. Milos Kerkez scored to give Liverpool life right before the halftime whistle, but Brentford extended their lead once more thanks to an Igor Thiago penalty midway through the second half following a VAR review.

Mohamed Salah, restored to the starting lineup after being benched midweek, struck his first Premier League goal since the opening day to give Liverpool hope late on, but Brentford held on to claim just their second Premier League win over the Merseyside giants.

Liverpool are just the fourth defending Premier League champions to lose four straight games, joining the Anfield club's 2020-21 side, 2024-25 Manchester City and 2016-17 Leicester City, who lost five straight.

Arne Slot's side, who were without British-record signing Alexander Isak due to injury, have already suffered the same number of losses through nine games of this season as they did in the entirety of their title-winning campaign last season.

Liverpool are now down in seventh, behind Bournemouth, Manchester United and Sunderland among others, and could find themselves seven points adrift of leaders Arsenal by the end of the weekend.

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Slot was well aware of Brentford's threat from long throws, but Liverpool still could not handle them as they fell behind early.

Salah's first chance arrived courtesy of Cody Gakpo's through ball, but his touch was heavy and former Reds teammate Caoimhín Kelleher was out quickly to smother the ball at his feet.

Florian Wirtz should have scored 20 minutes in after Hugo Ekitike's backheel ricocheted in front of him, but the German screwed his shot wide from 12 yards.

Brentford grew more adventurous and Jordan Henderson, playing against the team he captained to the title for the first time since he left in 2023, almost doubled his current side's lead with a 20-yard drive which flew inches wide.

Henderson's midfield partner Mikkel Damsgaard, then went even closer with his curling effort tipped over the crossbar by Giorgi Mamardashvili.

The second goal arrived in the 45th minute, just moments after Gakpo had a pretty strong case for a penalty turned down following a challenge from Nathan Collins.

Wirtz lost the ball in midfield and Damsgaard played the perfect defense-splitting pass to Schade, who showed Ibrahima Konaté a clean pair of heels before finishing past Mamardashvili.

However, Liverpool grabbed a lifeline in stoppage time when Conor Bradley's cross was lashed home by fellow fullback Kerkez.

Brentford were unhappy that play had gone on well past the three minutes of added time shown, with boss Keith Andrews angrily kicking a water bottle onto the pitch. But referee Simon Hooper might well have added some more time on for the interminable delays at every Brentford throw.

After the break, Virgil Van Dijk clipped Ouattara on the edge of the box and referee Tim Robinson -- on as a sub for Hooper -- gave a free kick. But a VAR check showed the contact was on the line, a penalty was awarded, and Thiago did the rest.

With two minutes remaining, Salah grabbed his first goal in seven matches, a sweetly struck finish after Ajer's hesitation allowed Dominik Szoboszlai to get in a cross.

But the equalizer would not come, and when a late Liverpool attack was cleared by a wall of red and white, it was celebrated almost like a goal by the buoyant Bees.

Information from PA and ESPN Research was used in this report.