The EPL title was a three-horse race, but that was till today. Liverpool just blinked, and dropped out. In a must-win match against the lowly Crystal Palace, Manager Jurgen Klopp just could not find the proper strategy, or the men, to win and ensure that the title race continues. With Manchester City winning their match 5-1 in style yesterday and taking over at the top of the table, now it remains to be seen what Arsenal is made of in its next match. However, today was all about Crystal Palace and they managed to do what very few teams have done this season, beat Liverpool and that too at their home – Anfield.

Palace not only was able to attack and score, they even managed to beat back the Liverpool attacks that came in waves.

How things were going to go became quickly apparent with Eze getting the first shot off at the Liverpool goal in the 2nd minute itself. However, it was easily dealt with by Alisson. The Palace attitude is that they will play free-flowing football and attack at every opportunity rather than sit back and play on the break.

With both sides bent on attacking at all times, the end-to-end action was fast and furious and exceedingly watchable for the fans.

Palace score!

And then there was a goal! In the 14th minute Eze, the man who had taken virtually the first shot at goal early in the match, made Liverpool defense pay for some lacklustre work. A pass from the left found him inside the box with room to spare and he simply shot it past Alisson. 1-0! And you could not say that it was against the run of play.

In the 18th minute, it could well have been 2-0! A Van Dijk mistake allowed Mateta a free run at the goal and he even beat Alisson, but it was a diving clearance on the line by Andy Robertson that denied Crystal Palace! An off-colour Van Dijk was something that Liverpool could not afford, but things did not improve much.

What was intriguing and quite thrilling to see was that Crystal Place were not taking their foot off the accelerator. They just kept their attacking mind-set alive and made sure that Liverpool did not get into their attacking stride throughout for the first half at least.

Wasted chances

The chance that came Liverpool’s way was in the 27th minute and that too from a set piece. Roberston powered a ball into the centre of the box and there was a melee before it came to Diaz. However, the best he could do was smash it against the crossbar.

In fact, Roberston was involved in almost all incisive Liverpool attacks, but the opportunities were being wasted in front of the goal.

The usually reliable Mac Allister too was not proving effective, even from a set piece. A free—kick won with great difficulty saw him tamely hit the wall for yet another wasted chance.

The second half started with Liverpool showing more purpose than Palace, but that was to be expected. A couple of quick corners were effectively taken, but Palace managed to ensure effective clearances.

By the 65th minute, it was clear, Klopp would have to inject some fresh legs and he did that in the form of Jota and Gakpo. The players they replaced were Nunez and Diaz. These two have been integral to Liverpool wins through the season and if they were being replaced, then it was clearly evident the team was misfiring big time.

In fact, even the ever reliable Jones made a huge mistake in front of the goal. He fluffed the easiest goal-scoring opportunity. The ball was coming to him and all he had to do was connect with it, but he missed even touching it!

He was not the only one! With another open goal opportunity, Jota failed to net it, instead he sent it crashing into a Palace player.

Having blunted the attacks by Liverpool, Palace themselves went on the attack and almost scored! A free kick from outside the box saw Mateta come up with the ball, but he shot straight at Alisson.

With title hopes slipping as the minutes ticked away, Liverpool threw all caution to the wind in favour of attacking play. However, they just were not able to manufacture a telling pass or a shot on target.

Even the reliable Mo Salah was not able to manufacture a breakthrough as his own attempts fell flat against the tight defense.

And that is the way it finally ended. Liverpool 0 – Crystal Palace 1.