Nketiah's late winner downs Liverpool 2-1 to send Palace second
LONDON :Liverpool's perfect Premier League start came to a juddering halt at Crystal Palace on Saturday, with substitute Eddie Nketiah's last-gasp winner giving the Eagles a deserved win over the sub-par champions that ought to have been much easier.
Ismaila Sarr smashed in from close range, his third goal in his last three games against the Reds, after Liverpool failed to clear a contentious corner in the ninth minute.
Palace were rampant and could have been 4-0 up inside 25 minutes, with Liverpool indebted to a tame effort from Yeremy Pino and goalkeeper Alisson's superb saves from Daniel Munoz and Jean-Philippe Mateta to keep them in the contest.
Liverpool substitute Federico Chiesa's 87th-minute equaliser looked set to give the champions an absolute heist of a 1-1 draw, which felt harsh on Palace after the VAR cleared a possible handball by Mohamed Salah.
But Nketiah fired past Alisson at the death, almost a minute after the end of the six added on, with Palace surviving a tense VAR review which Nketiah admitted was "a nervous wait".
Palace's victory moves them up to second place with 12 points from six games as the only remaining unbeaten side in the league.
It also extends the Eagles' run without defeat to a club record-equalling 18 games, in which time they have lifted the FA Cup and Community Shield, but boss Oliver Glasner said he does not want Palace to simply protect an unbeaten record.
"(If) you want to stay unbeaten, you want to defend something," he told reporters. "Defending something is always passive for me, but we want to win something."
Liverpool's loss leaves them on 15 points from six games, still top though Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal can both cut the gap to two points if they win their fixtures against Wolverhampton Wanderers and Newcastle United respectively.
"When you look at the first half, they totally deserved to win," Liverpool boss Arne Slot told reporters.
"In the second half, I think it was a much better performance from us. (But) if one team deserved to win today, I think it was Palace."
SLOPPY LIVERPOOL NEARLY PUNISH PALACE
The Reds had not even trailed an opponent this season before Saturday, but without truly impressing and were repeatedly undone by a well-drilled Palace and their own sloppy errors.
Conor Bradley was at fault for giving the ball away in the build-up to Sarr's goal from a corner, though Liverpool argued Bradley had won a goal kick off Tyrick Mitchell.
Ibrahima Konate was fortunate his poor play did not let Palace extend their lead, with Alisson denying Mateta one-on-one after the France defender was dispossessed. Konate also squandered a decent chance to equalise before the break.
Record signing Alexander Isak looked off the pace on his first league start for the Reds but, with Hugo Ekitike suspended, played more than 80 minutes until he was withdrawn to chants of "what a waste of money" from the Palace fans.
Liverpool had Palace camped deep in their own half and cult hero Chiesa thought he had snatched an unlikely point when he lashed in from six yards.
But Nketiah pounced after Marc Guehi, whose deadline day move to Liverpool collapsed at the last minute, nodded on from another poorly-defended set piece to give Palace the three points.
"I told the players last time when we won on penalties (against Liverpool in the Community Shield), I'm now over 50, they should look after my heart, make it a little bit easier to relax a little bit earlier," Glasner joked.
"And on the other side, this is why we love football."
