Liverpool will end the week six points clear at the summit of the Premier League after a 2-0 victory over Brentford was followed up by Arsenal being held 2-2 at home to Aston Villa. Substitute Darwin Nunez struck twice in stoppage time to send the Reds seven clear before the Gunners were pegged back by the visiting Villa having taken a two-goal lead at the Emirates.

The ECHO, of course, was on hand at the Gtech Community Stadium to provide its usual mix of player ratings, big-match verdict and on-the-whistle analysis. Our colleagues from the national media were also there to provide their own considered appraisals. Here's what they made of it.

Sam Wallace, of The Telegraph, writes: "In another era, in another kind of football, Darwin Nunez might be the type of unconventional striker who would be a cult hero at a smaller club, but at Liverpool in 2025, when the margins are so tight at the top of the Premier League and every player must earn his place, he can often feel like a man on the edge of things.

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"This time, it was the 91st minute, and Liverpool’s 36th attempt of the afternoon on the Brentford goal that fell to Nunez’s feet. A substitute coming into a team that started without an orthodox No 9, Nunez had just two Premier League goals all season as the clock ticked down past 90 minutes.

"By the final whistle he had doubled that total with two goals which won the game for Liverpool and may have changed the course of the title race. These are the afternoons that signpost the way for title-winning teams and this one belonged to Nunez."

The Daily Mail's Lewis Steele pens: "With time ticking perilously away for a relentless Liverpool on a bitterly cold afternoon in Brentford, Darwin Nunez received the ball on the edge of the box and shanked it like he was a rugby player at nearby Twickenham.

"Up, up and away over the posts and heading straight for the M4 which runs behind this stadium. It took Liverpool’s shot tally into the 30s and summed up their afternoon: imperious build-up play, zero end product. All hat no cattle, as the old saying goes.

"Arne Slot was left scratching his head on the sidelines as his side were about to drop points for a third successive league game, hardly opening the door and inviting Arsenal in for a cuppa but certainly leaving it ajar for the Gunners to truly reignite a title challenge.

"Then, with shots 36 and 37, Nunez came up with two golden moments that would have sent shockwaves around the footballing world to silence doubters in the fanbase and certainly those Arsenal fans at the Emirates thinking they were set to chase down more ground.

"How he needed it and how Slot needed the man who, on Friday, the boss said he was failing to extract the best from. Fans had questioned whether Nunez would ever live up to his £85million transfer fee, with some urging the club to cash in if the Saudis put up a decent fee this summer.

"If those two goals help fire Liverpool to the Premier League title, they will be priceless. This was an afternoon riddled with frustration that all of a sudden turned into a day the travelling Kop will not be forgetting in a hurry."

Over on The Guardian's pages, Barney Ronay scribes: "This was a really good game for Arne Slot. On an afternoon when Liverpool had 35 shots in 90 scoreless minutes, then won the game with their last two in added time, and when those goals were scored by Slot’s first substitute and created by his fourth, it was above all a very good game for the idea of process, control and calm intervention.

"Admittedly these are not generally qualities associated with a late match-winning, mane-tossing, nostril-snorting two-goal Darwin Núñez salvo. But this was how it played out at the Gtech under Slot’s hand.

"Nunez doubled his league goal tally for the season. He resembled, as ever, and at all moments, a footballer being chased around the pitch by a swarm of invisible bees. He also came away looking on the metrics like a precision stealth weapon deployed at just the right moment.

"Half an hour played, 10 touches, four shots, two goals. Against a Brentford team that never modified its deep counterattacking gameplan Núñez was deployed here as the human equivalent of the Hammer, the final bowl in a crown green bowling end, where you finally get to roll up your sleeves and just wang it down in search of creative chaos.

"It worked because Liverpool didn’t alter their own method and manner as the prospect of another frustrating afternoon began to loom. And it was fascinating watching Slot on his touchline through the full 90 minutes, head gleaming under those low white lights, a little tender and exposed to the freezing air.

"These are the games you have to win to win a league. Can you do it on a cold Saturday afternoon at an agreeable new-build ground ringed by the investment flats and delicatessens of suburban west London, faced with an elite data-driven team, and a home crowd riding a wave of being quite pleased with how things are going?

"In the event this was a genuine test. Liverpool have been able to perform under very little pressure so far. To date they have only ever been in one emotional space, the unhurried frontrunner. Slot has been able to retain his own air of calm, the look even mid-match of a prosperous provincial butcher here to pick up a civic award."

Miguel Delaney, The Independent's chief football writer, muses: "A punchline of a different sort. Darwin Nunez hasn’t had the most enjoyable season so far, to the point that his performances have been met with some derision, but on Saturday he had his best day at Liverpool for over a year. Or, perhaps, his best few minutes.

"This trip to Brentford was an occasion when his team needed goals, and especially a match-winning stoppage-time double like this, almost more than Nunez himself. As the board went up to show a mere four minutes remaining, the 0-0 scoreline was about to bring Liverpool’s fifth draw in eight games. That would only have invigorated second-placed Arsenal, who were starting against Aston Villa immediately afterwards.

"The entire mood instead turned on Nunez’s pivot. At 91 minutes, with the ball finally breaking the right way for Liverpool in the Brentford box, Trent Alexander-Arnold clipped in a low cross for the striker to swivel and finish with power. Moments later, he doubled his tally for the game and his entire league campaign, by turning and smashing in another.

"It was quite a moment to claim his first goals in a month, and just his third and fourth in the league overall, as Liverpool claimed a 2-0 victory at what Arne Slot described as one of the hardest away trips in the Premier League.

"Nunez might have occasionally been a lampooned figure, but Liverpool fans are the ones laughing after interventions like this. Outsiders may similarly point to the fact he’s a £60m-plus signing, but that isn’t his fault. And here, he displayed a laudable attitude to overcoming his own errors.

"It might end up a significant win in the title race. That’s something else that changes around this time. A performance isn’t just a performance any more, a win not just a win.

"Everything is put in the context of the more emotionally charged atmosphere of a title race, with everyone imposing meaning from that. This came down to one man, who more than had the last laugh."

And Ian Doyle, in his ECHO analysis, writes: "The moment the Brentford supporters opened their mouths, you knew what was going to happen. You just knew it.

"Darwin Nunez was still trotting on to the pitch having been introduced midway through the second half when he was serenaded by chants from the home crowd that suggested the Uruguayan was, in polite terms, an inferior version of former Liverpool striker Andy Carroll.

"Nunez, of course, has heard it all before. And as Bournemouth and fans of several other clubs have previously discovered, it’s probably not a good idea to goad the forward in such a manner.

"Brentford’s followers, though, clearly hadn’t been paying attention, all the more baffling given Nunez had opened the scoring audacious fashion when the Reds romped to victory at the Gtech Community Stadium last season.

"This time Nunez had to wait until the first minute of injury-time to do likewise when sweeping home Trent Alexander-Arnold’s cross from close range, prompting a celebration that was a mixture of both relief and delight among the Liverpool players and supporters after Arne Slot's side appeared on the brink of another damaging and frustrating result in the title race."