Liverpool emerged victorious in a topsy-turvy encounter away to Selhurst Park to keep level on points tally with Manchester City and Arsenal
Liverpool’s attacking players proved to be too much to handle for Crystal Palace in the end, after the home team managed to equalize twice in the first half itself, thanks to some individual errors and questionable defending by the Reds.
Emre Can opened the scoring with a delightful team goal, only for McArthur to level the scores taking advantage of a Lovren-Karius mishap. Lovren made up for the mistake almost instantaneously, scoring from a Coutinho corner before McArthur scored his second goal of the night from a Zaha cross to make the scoreline 2-2.
Liverpool took the lead for the third time in the game through Matip just before the half-time. Firmino then put Crystal Palace to the sword, scoring Liverpool’s fourth goal of the night in the 71st min.
Here are four key talking points from the entertaining contest –
Liverpool’s attacking threat as good as anyone in the league
Under Jurgen Klopp, Liverpool have rekindled the attacking flair that we last saw from the Reds back in 2013/14, and it was on display again last night.
Crystal Palace, just like various other teams, just couldn’t cope with the intricate combination play between the Liverpool players, their movements and the energy level. Time and time again they managed to cut through the home team, and on any other day the scoreline could have been much, much worse for Alan Pardew’s men.
Liverpool have now scored 79 goals in the Premier League since Jurgen Klopp’s arrival, three more than any other team and are joint top scorers in the league this season with 24.
Times scored 4+ away in the PL since Klopp took over:
5 – LIVERPOOL
3 – Spurs, Man City
2 – Arsenal, Chelsea
5 – Rest of the PL combined— Andrew Beasley (@BassTunedToRed) October 30, 2016
Coutinho the Orchestrator
When on song, Coutinho is an absolute delight to watch; and rather unfortunately for Crystal Palace, it was the case yesterday.
The Brazlian play-maker was orchestrator-in-chief for almost every Liverpool attack, finishing the match with the most key passes (4) while instigating Liverpool’s opener and assisting Lovren and Matip’s goal from set-pieces.
Coutinho’s starting position was on the left, but when Liverpool were in possession, he would move inwards towards a more central midfield position and conduct the plays. The Crystal Palace midfielders were left chasing shadows of the Brazilian throughout the game, such was the former Inter player’s performance.
One common complain from Coutinho from his previous seasons was his consistency, but this season he seems to be finally taking the center-stage. The midfielder has already scored 4 and assisted 4 in 10 appearances this season in the league.
Still big room for improvement for Klopp
There can’t be many complaints for Liverpool going forward, but yesterday’s contest demonstrated yet again why defence remains the area which needs drastic improvement if the club is to challenge for the tittle come next May.
The back-line was shaky all evening, making routine individual mistakes with McArthur pouncing on one such error from Lovren to equalize 1-1. The second goal saw another piece of shoddy defending from Liverpool, with Lovren losing out aerially to former Liverpool striker Benteke, who then played a pass to Zaha, who somehow was in acres of space on the right. Zaha put in a cross and McArthur got ahead of Lovren to score his second goal of the night.
Liverpool have conceded 13 goals in 10 matches in the league this season; far from an ideal statistic.
And now to build upon the good start
Liverpool have now secured the same points tally as League leaders Manchester City and second placed Arsenal with 23 points, with only goal-difference keeping them at the third spot.
However, Klopp’s men have a favorable looking fixture list coming up for next one and half months with – Watford (H), Southampton (A), Sunderland (H), Bournemouth (A), West Ham (H) and Middlesbrough (A).
It will be a great opportunity for Liverpool to accumulate as many points as possible from the upcoming fixture list and build momentum, with Arsenal and Manchester City also having European commitments to contend with.
