TOP GUNS FIR ED UP
Goal centurions Mane and Salah shoot down Palace as dazzling Liverpool of old hit the summit
THERE were 12 minutes to go when Mo Salah ran on to the ball that had dropped out of the melee of bodies competing for it at a corner.
He advanced on it without breaking stride and smashed it past Vicente Guaita in the Crystal Palace goal. His landmark strike, his 100th Premier League goal, had come at Elland Road last week, but Salah celebrated number 101 with even more gusto.
Perhaps it was because it was in front of the Kop, perhaps it was because there has been so much speculation about whether he will follow the rest of the first team cohort and sign a new contract at the club or perhaps it was because he knew it was the goal that meant Liverpool would end the day at the top of the table for the first time since January 4.
He ripped his shirt off and threw it down on the turf and drank in the celebrations of the fans. Maybe there was another reason. This was an emphatic victory for Liverpool and even if they had their scares early in the game, it was a victory that suggested that, after all the adversity of last season, they will be right in the thick of the title race again this term.
Almost for the first time since they won the title, they looked like the Liverpool of old.
Even more worryingly for the rest of the league, manager Jurgen Klopp insisted afterwards there was more still to come from his side.
‘Today we were not brilliant,’ said Klopp. ‘But we were good. We accepted the battle Palace was here for. You saw the intensity. Palace put an extra shift in. I am really happy for the performance. It was one of the hardest-fought 3-0 wins I’ve ever seen.’
Of milestone man Sadio Mane, Klopp added: ‘Sadio scored for the ninth time against Palace and his 100th for Liverpool, and that’s exceptional. But people forget around these 100 goals he worked incredibly hard, defended well, pressed high, counter pressed.
‘The 100 goals are just one number but I am just really happy for him. It’s a massive achievement in the glorious history of this club.’
Patrick Vieira’s side came into the game high on confidence after their 3-0 defeat of Spurs last week and the game started with rather a rude awakening for Liverpool defender Ibrahima Konate, who was making his first appearance for the club after his summer move from RB Leipzig.
He was given an early introduction to the hurly-burly of the Premier League when a ball looped up over him after 90 seconds and fell into the path of Wilfried Zaha.
The Palace winger was on the chance in a flash and even though he could not control it, the ball bounced up off him and began to fall towards the corner of the net.
Alisson scrambled backwards and palmed the ball on to the post and out for a corner. Christian Benteke hit the post from the corner with a header, too, but the flag soon went up for offside. Finally, Konate could take a breath.
Diogo Jota ought to have put the hosts ahead in the ninth minute when he wriggled away from his marker inside the box but fired over from a tight angle six yards out.
Guaita then made a smart save from Henderson when Liverpool’s captain ran on to a cross from Mane at the back post and, as the half wore on, Liverpool’s frustration grew.
They should have made the breakthrough seven minutes before half-time when a sumptuous move carved the Palace defence open.
Thiago should have scored when he met a cross eight yards out but even though Guaita made a brilliant save to keep out his header, he could only palm the ball straight to Jota. The goal gaped. Jota tried to ram his shot into the roof of the net but skied it high over the bar. Palace breathed a sigh of relief but it was a brief reprieve. On the stroke of the interval, Konstantinos Tsimikas swung over a corner and Salah glanced his header across goal towards the far corner and even though Guaita made another fine save to keep it out, Mane pounced
on the rebound and lashed it home. Coming a week after Salah scored his 100th goal in the Premier League, this was Mane’s 100th goal for Liverpool in all competitions. It did, though, set a new Premier League record: Mane’s goal meant he had scored in each of his last nine appearances against Palace.
Thiago limped off after 62 minutes to be replaced by Naby Keita and disconsolately waved away the commiserations of the Liverpool medical staff. As he departed, Palace brought on new signing Odsonne Edouard, one of the stars of Palace’s convincing win over Spurs last weekend.
And the former Celtic striker was presented with a golden chance to equalise when he ghosted into the six-yard box alone to meet a cross from Joel Ward but he seemed so surprised that he had only Alisson to beat that he failed to control the ball and it rolled into the keeper’s hands.
Palace rued that missed chance. Liverpool won a corner at the other end and when Jota swung it into the box, Virgil van Dijk challenged for the ball and it dropped invitingly to Salah at the back post.
The Egyptian volleyed it past Guaita and celebrated by ripping off his shirt in front of the Kop.
Keita then made it 3-0 with a late curling shot.
Liverpool are now top and may not be easy to shift.
LIVERPOOL (4-3-3): Alisson; Milner, Konate, van Dijk,Tsimikas; Henderson (Origi 88), Fabinho, Thiago (Keita 62); Salah, Jota (Jones 76),Mane.
Subs (not used): Gomez, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Minamin, Robertson, Phillips, Kelleher.
Booked: Henderson,Tsimikas,Salah.
CRYSTAL PALACE (4-3-3): Guaita; Ward, Andersen, Guehi, Mitchell; Gallagher, Kouyate (Olise 82),McArthur (Riedewald 65); Ayew, Benteke (Edouard 65), Zaha.
Subs (not used): Butland, Milivojevic, Tomkins,
Hughes, Clyne, Kelly.
Booked: Ward.
Referee: Andrew Madley.