There are some 3-1 victories where you come away thinking Liverpool have dominated from the first whistle, controlled everything that happened and simply been too good for the opposition. Sunday at Crystal Palace was not really that sort of game, although the scoreline might eventually make it look that way. Palace had long spells where they carried a threat, Liverpool’s football occasionally became disjointed and Alisson was required to make several important saves, but when the decisive moments arrived, Liverpool had the players capable of taking them.
Alexis Mac Allister scored the opener from a set piece, Florian Wirtz finally got his first Premier League goal and Alexander Isak finished the job late on with another clinical piece of centre forward play. Eddie Nketiah’s stoppage time penalty spoiled the clean sheet and clearly irritated Andoni Iraola, but it did little to change my overall feeling about the afternoon. After the disappointment of the Arsenal defeat and another demanding European week, this felt like an important victory at a ground where Liverpool are rarely given an easy afternoon.
The performance was not perfect and there were certainly periods where Palace looked capable of getting themselves properly back into the contest. Liverpool, though, kept finding answers. That has become quite an interesting characteristic of Iraola’s side away from Anfield. They do not necessarily need to completely dominate a match to win it, and increasingly there appears to be a deliberate acceptance that some away games will be about managing dangerous periods and making the important moments count.
Liverpool Were Ruthless in a Much Closer Game Than 3-1 Suggests
The statistics immediately show why this should not be remembered as a comfortable afternoon. Crystal Palace had 54% possession compared with Liverpool’s 46%, attempted 19 shots to Liverpool’s 20 and had seven efforts on target compared with eight. The expected goals figures were almost identical, Palace finishing on 2.60 and Liverpool on 2.65, while both teams created five big chances.
