Salah steals the show at Palace
Striker on song to lay down a marker
THIS game was pretty much over a few seconds before the end of the first half. Liverpool may only have led by a single goal at that point, but it had been scored from the penalty spot by James Milner.
Stats nerds know what happens when Milner scores in the Premier League. His team do not lose. Not once, not ever.
Milner had found the net 48 times in the Premier League, across 47 games. The end result: 37 wins and 10 draws. So full credit to Crystal Palace for trying their damnedest to overcome the inevitable, but history favoured three points for Liverpool from that moment.
The home fans felt hard done by over the penalty and their mood will not have improved when local hero Aaron Wan-Bissaka was sent off for tripping the man they saw as the villain of the piece, Mohamed Salah, but Liverpool were good for their win.
Roy Hodgson has Crystal Palace sorted out now, and Selhurst Park will be a difficult visit for even the Premier League’s finest teams. So Liverpool have laid down a marker for the likes of Manchester City — and maybe others — to follow.
Wan-Bissaka is a star in the making, too, and beneath the gaze of Gareth Southgate was impressing, right up to the moment the rashness of youth curtailed his evening. There were 15 minutes to go when Roberto Firmino put Salah away and he outstripped Palace’s back four to tear on goal.
Wan-Bissaka set off in pursuit but getting there was always a desperately tall order, even for one so fast. A wiser head would have left it for goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey to deal with, stayed alert to being first to any rebound, and what will be, will be.
Wan-Bissaka tried his luck. He clipped Salah in full flow, the results were spectacular and referee Michael Oliver had no option but to brandish a red card. The only saving grace was that contact came outside the area and Liverpool did nothing with the freekick. It was a sad end to WanBissaka’s night, though. He was shown a red card playing for England Under 20s, too, a record that belies his enormous talent.
As Palace searched in vain for an equaliser, the inevitable happened. Virgil van Dijk won a mighty header — one of many — from a Palace corner, Salah sped away on the break and put Sadio Mane in. He stayed upright after another desperate challenge from Patrick van Aanholt, rounded Hennessey and pushed the ball into an empty net. Follow that. They will all have to, and it won’t be easy.
There is a reason Liverpool traded Mamadou Sakho and it was there in the 44th minute. After Crystal Palace had worked like stink to take Liverpool to half-time goalless, Sakho chucked it away with the last attack before the whistle. The home fans fumed and raged and cried cheat at Salah and Oliver, the referee, but it was a foul that did the damage, not a dive — and the official saw it clearly and reacted without question.
Roberto Firmino threaded the ball into Salah, as he had been looking to do throughout, and Sakho had a couple of nibbles before the fateful trip. He was trying to get the ball but it was clumsy and always likely to end in calamity. Salah was preparing to shoot but tumbled instead. Maybe he exaggerated the fall, but not the foul. Milner stepped up and, in front of a raucous home end, stuck the ball smartly past Hennessey for the lead Liverpool deserved.
It wouldn’t be right to say Salah has never dived — he did so against Chelsea towards the end of last season, and Jurgen Klopp called him on it, very publicly. It wasn’t a ruse but it might have helped Salah, long term. He would be a fool to anger his manager a second time and if referees are paying attention they would know that. Maybe it helped swing the decision.
Palace will have felt doubly unfortunate having had the best chance of the first 45 minutes. No one would argue they had the better of the play but when Naby Keita gave the ball away, it set Andros Townsend up on the right. He cut inside, sized up the target and hit a fantastic dipping shot that defeated Alisson but not the bar. It was a rare opportunity.
Palace have some outstanding athletes — not least Wilfried Zaha, Jeffrey Schlupp and right back Wan-Bissaka — but mostly they were preoccupied containing Liverpool. All, on occasion, went on powerful runs, but Palace did not have the numbers committed to attack to make that count. Liver-
pool are organised, too, and at last have the defensive strength to support the wit of their forwards.
Not that they got much joy out of Palace, impressively organised as they have been for some while now by Hodgson. It took 19 minutes for Liverpool to get close to a breakthrough when Mane broke to the by-line, only to be thwarted by a quite splendid tackle from Wan-Bissaka.
Soon after, Sakho passed directly to Keita, who almost put Salah in. Mane knocked the stuffing out of Hennessey with an aerial challenge after 21 minutes so it was perhaps just as well that a minute later, when Salah was put through by Keita, his lob did not test the goalkeeper but flew harmlessly over the bar. Hennessey had fully recovered four minutes later when Liverpool mounted their next attack. Salah’s shot was blocked but Keita was first on to the rebound and Hennessey tipped the ball round at his near post.
The crowd were already puzzlingly incensed by a booking for Van Aanholt who clamped Milner’s legs in a tackle, so once the penalty was given it was open season on the officials, and Salah. One of the biggest cheers of the night came after 49 minutes when, put through by Andrew Robertson, Salah took the ball too wide rounding Hennessey and had to double back instead of going for goal. He fed Keita, but his shot went wide of the target to the accompaniment of more mockery.
Sarcastic support then followed the award of a free-kick, and a yellow card, against Trent Alexander- Arnold for a foul on Zaha. Luka Milivojevic curled it over the wall, forcing the first save of the night from Alisson. CRYSTAL PALACE (4-3-3): Hennessey 7; Wan-Bissaka 6, Tomkins 6, Sakho 5, Van Aanholt 5.5; McArthur 7, Milivojevic 7, Schlupp 6.5 (Meyer 83); Townsend 7 (Ward 79), Benteke 5.5 (Sorloth 70, 6), Zaha 7. Subs not used: Guaita, Kouyate, Ayew, Kelly. Booked: Van Aanholt. Sent off: Wan-Bissaka. Manager: Roy Hodgson 6. LIVERPOOL (4-3-3): Alisson 7; Alexander-Arnold 6.5, Gomez 8, VAN DIJK 8.5, Robertson 6.5; Milner 7 (Henderson 67, 6), Wijnaldum 7, Keita 7.5 (Lallana 87); Salah 7, Firmino 6 (Sturridge 90), Mane 6.5. Subs not used: Mignolet, Moreno, Shaqiri, Matip. Scorers: Milner pen 45, Mane 90+3. Booked: Alexander-Arnold. Manager: Jurgen Klopp 7. Referee: Michael Oliver 7.