A first home defeat of the Premier League season for Liverpool has left their title aspirations now hanging by a thread.
Eberechi Eze’s first-half goal for Crystal Palace was enough to condemn the Reds to their first home league loss since October 2022 and just their third in front of supporters at Anfield in seven years.
Manchester City now lead the table by two points, leaving Liverpool in need of more slips up from Arsenal and Pep Guardiola’s men before the end of the campaign.
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But you knew all of that, of course. What you might have missed were a series of intriguing subplots at Anfield. Here are our moments missed.
Palace celebrate famous win
It’s a job that is probably difficult enough already for Jurgen Klopp, facing the barrage of media questions after such a damaging result – but the Liverpool boss was forced to do so to a backdrop of celebrations from their visitors on Sunday afternoon.
As Klopp faced up to questions from Sky Sports’ Juliette Ferrington after the game, the Palace players could be heard in the background toasting to their biggest win of Oliver Glasner’s time with the South Londoners.
To the tune of Lil Uzi Vert’s ‘Just Wanna Rock’, the visitors marked the huge victory. As a result, Klopp attempted to pick the bones out of a setback that could prove to be catastrophic, while the Philadelphia rapper’s autotune-heavy hit pounded from the bluetooth speakers in the dressing room just a few yards away.
The visiting side were well within their rights to enjoy themselves and Klopp took no issue with the noise. The less said the better about the Palace squad’s choice of post-match music, however…
Nunez kicking every ball
Having been left frustrated while on the pitch, it seemed Darwin Nunez was even more restless when taken off and the No.9 was left booting pieces of the Anfield furniture in anger after a second-half miss from Curtis Jones.
It was a wonderful piece of play from Cody Gakpo that deserved a finish from Jones, but the midfielder could only side foot wide when clean through as it started to become clear that it would not be Liverpool’s day.
As Klopp pulled down the front of his baseball cap in reaction to Jones’s miss, Nunez could be seen on Sky Sports’ coverage furiously booting one of the seats on the substitutes’ bench.
Having been replaced for Diogo Jota earlier in the game, it was all the Uruguayan striker could do as he gave the seat a harder welly than his shot a few minutes earlier that was blasted straight at Dean Henderson from close range.
Talk about ‘kicking every ball’.
Alexander-Arnold makes angry ref plea
There were 77 minutes on the clock as Crystal Palace made a triple substitution and time was ebbing away for Liverpool.
As Jeffrey Schlupp, Jairo Riedewald and Joel Ward all prepared to enter the fray an exasperated Trent-Alexander Arnold could be seen visibly airing his frustrations at referee Chris Kavanagh.
Clearly feeling the visitors were looking to eat up more time than was strictly necessary for the trio of changes, Alexander-Arnold made his feelings known to Kavanagh, urging him to make sure the time was added on in stoppage time.
The right-back was visibly demonstrating to the official about his unhappiness at how long the subs were taking with the Reds desperately looking to equalise. The point might have been well made because seven were eventually tagged on, although Palace held on in relative comfort.
Parish has short message
Palace chairman Steve Parish was understandably beaming as he made his way through the post-match mixed zone at Anfield.
Having seen his new manager secure the Eagles’ first win at the Reds for seven years, Parish had a spring in his step as he walked through the relatively quiet area where reporters were waiting to catch a minute or two of the players.
Despite his evident delight, Parish declined the opportunity to go on the record about it, though, politely turning down a request from a couple of Palace-specific reporters to stop and chat about a famous win.
“I’m happy,” was all the Eagles’ chief was able to tell the journalists after a quote or two as he walked away. Few could blame him.
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