Crystal Palace vs. Liverpool: Can the Reds Maintain Their Unbeaten Run at Selhurst Park?
Liverpool will travel to Selhurst Park on Saturday to face a struggling Crystal Palace side that is looking for its first win of the season. The Reds have a strong recent record against the Eagles, having won eight of their last nine league visits to Selhurst Park, drawing the other.
The Reds' 2024-25 Premier League season has gotten off to a dream start under Arne Slot. Other than a surprising loss to Nottingham Forest on Sept. 14, Liverpool has collected three points from every domestic match so far, putting the club ahead of Manchester City and Arsenal in the EPL standings. Slot's men also won their first two Champions League fixtures.
Before the October international break, Liverpool faces one last test against Crystal Palace, a side that is winless in its opening six Premier League matches. With only Harvey Elliott and Federico Chiesa dealing with injuries, Slot can field his strongest XI in Saturday's clash to make a statement against Oliver Glasner's squad.
Liverpool will be looking to maintain their momentum following their 2-0 win over Bologna in midweek. Mohamed Salah, Luis Díaz, Diogo Jota and Darwin Núñez will all be hoping to impress, while Palace will look to the brilliant Eberechi Eze and summer signing Eddie Nketiah to try and find a way to secure their first league win this term.
Palace, however, are in a different situation. They've struggled to convert chances, with only Southampton having scored fewer goals than Palace this season, and have made a series of unfortunate mistakes. Some of this could be put down to the unfamiliarity of the squad, especially over the first three matches where they were still recruiting.
There's been significant upheaval at Selhurst Park. In the summer, Michael Olise left for Bayern, Joachim Andersen joined Fulham and Jordan Ayew, Odsonne Édouard and Sam Johnstone also left, but they did manage to keep hold of Marc Guéhi amid strong interest from Newcastle, and the brilliant Eze.
They also brought in Nketiah, Trevoh Chalobah on loan, Ismaïla Sarr, Maxence Lacroix and Daichi Kamada. But they've looked disjointed this season, and though they've found themselves in promising areas of the pitch, they're struggling to turn that into goals.
“It's unfair for anyone to expect us to win six out of seven games,” Glasner told a news conference on Friday.
“I could give you many reasons but overall its unrealistic that we will win every game. At the moment, we are critical of ourselves. We are not in the best shape. It's hard work — nothing happens on its own.
“We will need a big heart [against Liverpool. They have fantastic players and a new manager doing a fantastic job. Their players look hungry and ambitious but we want to play forward and we want to score because if we don't do that, we don't win.”
The next batch of matches, starting with Palace, will be a true acid test of Slot's Liverpool. After Palace and the international break, they have Chelsea (h), Arsenal (a), Brighton (h), Aston Villa (h), Southampton (a), Manchester City (h), Newcastle (a), Everton (a) in the league, while in the Champions League they face a tricky trip to Leipzig, before they host Bayer Leverkusen and Real Madrid. It's a fiercely difficult run, and one which will test the depth of his squad.
Key to this is going to be squad rotation. There's been some juggling up front — Darwin Núñez started against Bologna on Wednesday, while Jota got the nod for their trip to Wolves last time out in the league. But the rest of the team is pretty settled, with Ibrahima Konaté and Van Dijk the first-choice centre-back partnership and the midfield trio of Dominik Szoboszlai, Alexis Mac Allister and Gravenberch well established.
To manage the upcoming run of games, you expect Slot is going to have to rotate a touch more and integrate players like Joe Gomez, Curtis Jones, Cody Gakpo, Wataru Endo and Federico Chiesa (who is in doubt for Saturday's game) more from the outset.
“We still have yet to prove that if we come across Arsenal, Newcastle, Chelsea and Aston Villa, that we can still be up there, with Champions League games included as well,” Slot said last weekend. “Two years ago was the last time they played in the Champions League and they finished fifth.
“Everybody is realistic. All the players have so much experience that they understand that six games into the season does not give you a realistic view of the table, that is more like after 19 games.”
The Match Report
The match report will appear here later.
The Key Moments of the Match
The game started with a bang, as Palace’s Eddie Nketiah scored in the 21st second of the match. However, the goal was ruled out for offside. The game was end to end in the first half, with both teams creating chances. Liverpool eventually took the lead in the 11th minute, when Diogo Jota finished off a fine move. Liverpool continued to dominate the game after scoring, and the Eagles' resistance began to crumble. However, Palace rallied in the last 20 minutes, and created several good chances, though they were ultimately unable to find a way back into the game. Despite the late onslaught from the home side, Liverpool took the game and maintained their lead atop the Premier League table.
Looking Ahead
Liverpool will be looking to maintain their momentum in the coming weeks, with a number of tough games on the horizon. They will be hoping to continue their strong start to the season, but the pressure will be on to keep their unbeaten run going. Palace will be hoping to bounce back from this defeat and get their season going. They will need to find a way to score more goals and tighten up at the back.
