Key events
36 min: Jones slips a ball down the left flank for Jota, who swivels to win a corner. Alexander-Arnold slowly trots across to take it. While he does that, Richard Hirst has an answer for Gary Naylor of 27th-minute fame: “Andersen is definitely worth as much to the buying team. Exhibits A and B: Fulham’s league position and their defensive record. He has brought not just his own ability but his leadership and organisational capabilities. A crucial purchase.”
34 min: Gravenberch strides into the Palace box from the right and rolls across to Jota, who should surely score from eight yards. But he wafts an awful sidefoot miles wide left. He was trying to be too cute there. Time to get the laces through it. It should be 0-2.
33 min: Jones has a nibble at Guehi and receives the one-more-and-it’s-yellow lecture from the referee. The resulting free kick is sent long into the Liverpool box, and wins Palace a corner, from which nothing comes. But the last couple of minutes have given the Palace faithful some succour, and the noise ramps up accordingly.
31 min: Gakpo is booked for catching Sarr late on the ankle. It looked accidental rather than malicious, and the subsequent apology is accepted.
30 min: Alexander-Arnold sends the free gift into the mixer. Gakpo flicks it on, but sends it wide right.
29 min: Wharton gives the ball away 30 yards from his own goal. Alexander-Arnold sends a fierce drive towards the bottom left. Henderson palms away with a strong hand. Clyne should clear the loose ball but carelessly lets it run out of play for a corner.
27 min: Liverpool continue to dominate. Palace can hardly get a touch. Gakpo cuts in from the left and looks for the top-right corner. He finds the top-right corner of the Holmesdale Road. “Is Joachim Andersen one of those players who is worth more to the selling team than the buying one?” wonders Gary Naylor. “£30m seemed a reasonable price for Fulham to pay for a 28 year-old, but could Palace replace his combination of experience, nous and leadership for that? It sounds crazy, but I suspect it happens quite often. There’s no way Liverpool could walk the ball into the net like that if he’s on the pitch.”
25 min: Guehi heads the corner over his own bar. The next attempt nearly tees up Gravenberch on the edge of the D, but he can’t get a shot away due to Lerma’s tenacity. Lerma eventually wins a free kick for his efforts, and earns some appreciative applause from the home fans, who haven’t had too much to shout about since the 21-second mark.
24 min: Konate, Gravenberch and Salah triangulate down the middle of the park. Some lovely football. Jones prepares to shoot but the pass is taken away from him by Mitchell. Another Tsimikas corner from the right coming up.
22 min: Lerma flicks Tsimikas’s corner away from danger. Liverpool have looked more dangerous than usual from corners lately, but they’re not Arsenal yet.
21 min: Jones, Tsimikas and Gakpo combine cutely down the left before the latter crosses deep in the hope of finding Salah at the far stick. Mitchell is on hand to flick out for a corner.
19 min: Gravenberch turns elegantly into space in the midfield, and nearly sends Salah clear down the middle. Chalobah is on point to put a stop to the attack.
17 min: Clyne, formerly of Liverpool, comes on to replace the stricken Munoz.
16 min: Munoz is down feeling his thigh. Not sure he’ll be able to continue. He certainly doesn’t look too happy. The physio comes on, then the pair trudge off. No sub yet.
15 min: Liverpool have enjoyed 83 percent of possession so far. That 21-second Nketiah shock seems an awfully long time ago now. “Good advertisement for squad depth with Robertson’s, Diaz’s and Nunez’s replacements combining for that goal,” observes Patrick Crumlish.
14 min: Space for Salah down the right. He crosses low. Mac Allister opts to dummy instead of poking goalwards at the near post, but there’s nobody in white behind him. Palace clear their lines.
13 min: Lerma blasts a confident clearing header upfield. “Unlike Matt Dony I’m in the unusual position of being very relaxed,” announces Richard Hirst. “If Palace win it keeps the top of the table closer to Fulham (!), if Liverpool win it, more realistically, keeps a bottom of the table team a long way behind us. Happy days.”
12 min: Mac Allister’s crossfield pass towards Alexander-Arnold on the right is immediately dispatched back into the Palace box. Guehi is forced to head behind with Jota and Gakpo lurking. Tsimikas to take the corner.
11 min: Before the game, Slot talked of keeping Selhurst quiet in the early exchanges. His team haven’t quite achieved that, on account of the away fans bellowing their songbook in celebration.
GOAL! Crystal Palace 0-1 Liverpool (Jota 9)
Liverpool ping it around patiently – this is Slotball – before – and this is also Slotball – suddenly turning it up a notch. Tsimikas slips a pass down the inside-left channel for Gakpo, who fizzes a low cross into the middle. Jota is the sharpest, arriving to slam home from eight yards. Easy as that.
7 min: … nothing occurs. Eze’s delivery is easily cleared by Gakpo.
6 min: Eze drives down the left before switching play to Munoz on the other flank. He fires a low, hard cross into the six-yard box, forcing Van Dijk to block out for a corner. From which …
4 min: Van Dijk plays a glorious crossfield pass towards Salah on the right touchline, where a one-two with Alexander-Arnold doesn’t come off. Both teams showing plenty of ambition in these early exchanges.
2 min: What a start that would have been for Palace. Brentfordesque. The move started by Lerma winning a 50-50 with Gravenberch in the midfield. Liverpool breathe again.
21 seconds: Crystal Palace have the ball in the net! Wharton slips a pass down the inside-right channel for Sarr, who rolls into the centre for Nketiah. The striker lifts the ball over Alisson and in! But the flag goes up. He’s gone too soon.
Crystal Palace get the ball rolling. The hosts are kicking towards the Whitehorse Lane Stand in this first half.
The teams are out! Crystal Palace are red and blue and Glad All Over. The usual magnificent atmosphere at Selhurst. Liverpool meanwhile are in crisp third-choice white with black shorts; a proper 1987 Littlewoods Cup final vibe, if memories of Crystanbul haven’t been painful enough. Apologies to Matt Dony. We’ll be off in a couple of minutes!
Pre-match postbag. “There have been 60 games thus far in the Premier League, 21 home wins, 21 home losses, 18 ties. Are we overstating the home advantage?” – Gary Stover
“Do the suits give the 1230 slot more frequently to Liverpool because Slot dislikes it or does Slot dislike it more because the suits scheduling it more frequently? Anyway, Slot has one escape route should they drop points today” – krishnamoorthy v
“At the risk of annoying a lot of people, there’s an internet phenomenon known as The Game. The aim of The Game is simply to not think about The Game. When you think about The Game, you immediately lose The Game. And you are always playing The Game. As a Liverpool fan, I play a very similar game. The aim of this game is, Don’t Think About The 3-3 Draw Away To Palace. And I just lost it. Again. It happens a surprising amount” – Matt Dony
Oliver Glasner speaks to TNT. “Ismaïla [Sarr] had very good performances when he came into the game … always a positive impact … he has a lot of pace … we expect Liverpool to play very dominant … there will be space in behind … we hope he can find and use this space and score goals … Trevoh [Chalobah] seems to be ready … we don’t know if he will be able to play 95 or 100 minutes but he looked pretty good in training … we want to play against Liverpool … we want to compete with the best teams … today nobody expects the three points but we want it … we will give everything we have to get the win … we will see … it is football, it is sports … we want to play Liverpool, gorgeous weather, great playing at Selhurst Park at 12.30 … we feel ready so let’s go!”
Arne Slot talks to TNT Sports and is asked about Liverpool’s “brilliant” start to the season. “Brilliant would have been nine [wins] out of nine! … this has been a very good start … the key is we haven’t changed that much … the players and staff have bought in … working hard … the fixture list has also been good to us … today it’s a difficult one, so let’s see … we do a lot of things well … but if we want to stay where we are and compete with even tougher opponents we have to find another gear … against Wolves we started really slow … against the low block against Forest we had problems … you will never reach perfection but we aim for that … it’s a good moment for Curtis Jones to start, also because he’s not going to go to the international games … every away game around the world is difficult … it’s very important not to get the crowd going … we have to be aggressive without the ball … help the crowd not to be as loud as they can be.”
Crystal Palace make two changes after the 2-1 defeat at Everton last weekend. Trevoh Chalobah, on loan from Chelsea, makes his debut, while Ismaïla Sarr starts on the wing; Daichi Kamada and Jean-Philippe Mateta drop to the bench.
Liverpool make four changes to the team sent out to beat Bologna 2-0 on Wednesday night. Curtis Jones, Cody Gakpo, Diogo Jota and Kostas Tsimikas are in; Dominik Szoboszlai, Luis Díaz, Darwin Núñez and Andrew Robertson are benched.
The teams
Crystal Palace: Henderson, Chalobah, Guehi, Lacroix, Munoz, Wharton, Lerma, Mitchell, Sarr, Nketiah, Eze.
Subs: Turner, Ward, Mateta, Schlupp, Clyne, Kamada, Hughes, Umeh, Kporha.
Liverpool: Alisson, Alexander-Arnold, Konate, van Dijk, Tsimikas, Jones, Mac Allister, Salah, Gravenberch, Gakpo, Jota.
Subs: Jaros, Gomez, Endo, Diaz, Szoboszlai, Nunez, Robertson, Quansah, Bradley.
Referee: Simon Hooper (Wiltshire).
Preamble
Crystal Palace have yet to win a Premier League game this season, while Liverpool are top of the table having won five of their first six. Add in the fact that the Reds have won eight of their last nine league visits to Selhurst Park, drawing the other, and there’s a fair chance you’ll be putting this down as an away banker this lunchtime. But look at it another way. Palace are surely too good not to snap their winless streak sooner rather than later; Liverpool surely can’t keep winning their away fixtures this season forever; and despite their great recent record at Selhurst, there’s always something nagging away at the back of Mersey minds … because Crystanbul left a lot of scar tissue. So good luck confidently predicting the outcome of this game, which could see Liverpool confidently extend their lead at the top, Palace get their season going belatedly, or anything in between. Kick-off is at 12.30pm BST. It’s on!
