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Liverpool extend Premier League lead with win at Palace

football05 October 2024 13:40| © AFP
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Liverpool extended their lead at the top of the Premier League to four points thanks to Diogo Jota's winner in a 1-0 victory at Crystal Palace on Saturday.

Arne Slot has now won nine of his first 10 games since succeeding Jurgen Klopp, but will be frustrated that the visitors invited a late onslaught from the winless Eagles.

Victory also came at a cost for Liverpool as goalkeeper Alisson Becker limped off in the closing stages ahead of a much more testing run of fixtures after the international break.

Defeat leaves Palace still in the bottom three with just three points from their opening seven games.

Slot's seamless start to succeeding saw him become the first Liverpool manager to win eight of his first nine games after beating Bologna 2-0 in the Champions League on Wednesday.

However, the Dutchman has been quick to point out that tougher tests lie ahead of his side's Premier League title credentials.

Liverpool face Chelsea, Arsenal, Aston Villa and Manchester City in their next six Premier League games.

Slot saw both sides of his team at Selhurst Park as they failed to make the most of their first-half dominance, but held out at the back for a fifth clean sheet in seven league games.

Palace did have the ball in the net inside 30 seconds but Eddie Nketiah had strayed offside before flicking in Ismaila Sarr's cross.

Liverpool quickly took control and the lead after just nine minutes when Jota stole in ahead of Marc Guehi and Trevoh Chalobah to prod in Cody Gakpo's low cross.

Jota was guilty of passing up the visitors' best chance to add to their lead before the break.

Trent Alexander-Arnold's teasing cross did not get the finish it deserved as the Portugal international sliced well wide of the target.

Palace finally flickered into life in first-half stoppage time when Sarr was denied by a fine save from Alisson after finding a gap in the Liverpool defence.

The pattern continued into the second period with Liverpool unable to put Palace to bed.

Salah should have done better when he fired straight at Dean Henderson after being picked out by a perfect Virgil Van Dijk pass.

Jota then headed wide a glorious chance from Alexander-Arnold's free-kick.

Slot's men were nearly made to pay after Jean-Philippe Mateta's introduction perked up the Palace attack.

Alisson got down low to his left to parry Nketiah's effort before the Brazilian beat away Eberechi Eze's powerful strike.

But Liverpool were dealt a body blow with 12 minutes remaining when Alisson pulled up with a muscle injury.

Normal back up Caoimhin Kelleher was also absent due to illness so Czech international Vitezslav Jaros was forced into his Liverpool debut.

Jaros had to make one huge save from Eze and also rushed impressively off his line to deny Mateta a sight of goal.

Arsenal and Manchester City could cut the gap at the top back to one point later on Saturday.

But Liverpool will go into the upcoming international break at the summit and happy with the start to life under Slot.

MATCH FACTS

Arne Slot is the first Liverpool manager to win as many as nine of his first 10 games in charge of the club (L1), while Liverpool have done so to begin a season for the third time after 1961-62 and 1990-91.

Liverpool have won each of their first four away league games to begin a season for just the third time after 1990-91 and 2019-20.

Crystal Palace have failed to win any of their opening seven league games (D3 L4); it’s the fifth time they’ve done so in the Premier League after 1992-93 (D4 L3), 1994-95 (D4 L3), 2004-05 (D2 L5) and 2017-18 (L7).

Liverpool are unbeaten in each of their last 10 Premier League trips to Crystal Palace (W9 D1), only failing to win in a goalless draw in February 2023.

Diogo Jota has been involved in 12 goals in his last 14 Premier League starts for Liverpool (8 goals, 4 assists), with four of his last five goals in the competition being the opening goal of the game.

Cody Gakpo created five chances for Liverpool against Crystal Palace, including the assist for Diogo Jota’s goal, his joint-most in a game for the Reds along with Atalanta in April last season.

Vítezslav Jaros is just the fourth goalkeeper to make his Premier League debut for Liverpool as a substitute alongside Patrice Luzi (January 2004), Bradley Jones (April 2012) and Adrián (August 2019).

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