Crystal Palace 0 Liverpool 1: Reds go into international break top of Premier League table but suffer major Alisson blow

LIVERPOOL hung on to claim the victory that guaranteed top spot heading into the international break.

The Reds led early through Diogo Jota and the Portugal striker should have grabbed a second just after the hour.

ReutersDiogo Jota netted the opening goal after just nine minutes against Crystal Palace[/caption]

RexBut the Reds suffered a major blow with Alisson forced off injured[/caption]

PAIt meant there was a debut for 23-year-old Vitezslav Jaros[/caption]

But in the end Arne Slot‘s side were left clinging on to all three points.

Neither referee Simon Hooper nor VAR saw fit to punish Virgil Van Dijk‘s tug on Marc Guehi with a penalty.

And Palace failed to make the most of the visitors losing goalkeeper Alisson Becker to injury with 15 minutes to go.

Debutant Vitezslav Jaros came on his Alisson’s place and should have been beaten by Eberechi Eze.

But the Palace playmaker, whose goal at Anfield in April had derailed the Reds’ title challenge last season, fired straight at the stand-in stopper.

So winless Palace lost again and Liverpool continued their promising but not totally convincing start under Slot.

Palace thought they had scored inside 30 seconds.

Eddie Nketiah, playing at centre forward in place of the benched Jean-Philippe Mateta, turned in Ismaila Sarr’s cross. But VAR confirmed the former Arsenal striker had been offside.

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Instead, three of the four changes that Slot made to the team which had beaten Bologna paid off immediately.

Left back Kostas Tsimikas played a lovely pass between two Palace defenders for Cody Gakpo.

The Dutchman sent in a low cross and Jota stole ahead of home debutant Trevoh Chalobah to apply the finish.

Moments later, Palace goalkeeper Dean Henderson cleared a Mo Salah cross.

After that Liverpool dominated possession and territory. They played some good football but could not find a final pass and ended up shooting from distance.

Gakpo fired off target and Trent Alexander-Arnold drew a save from Henderson with an effort from outside the box.

When Ryan Gravenberch did produce a good cross, Jota completely miscued when he should at least have hit the target. Virgil Van Dijk headed an Alexander-Arnold corner well over the bar.

The Palace crowd was frustrated, both by their team’s flat performance and by referee SImon Hooper’s reluctance to show more yellow cards to Liverpool players than he did.

Visiting goalkeeper Alisson finally had to make a save in first-half stoppage time, when he kept out Sarr’s low shot.

Slot sent on Dominik Szoboszlai at half time for one of the players who had been booked, Alexis Mac Allister.

Liverpool remained on top and Henderson made two important interventions, cutting out an Alexander-Arnold cross and then saving well from Salah after Van Dijk’s pass.

Glasner had seen enough before the hour. Off came left wing-back Tyrick Mitchell and on went Mateta, with Will Hughes replacing Adam Wharton.

Jota should have immediately put the game to bed. But when Alexander-Arnold’s free kick found him unmarked, six yards out, he headed the ball weakly wide.

Sloppy Liverpool play then gifted Palace the chance to equalise. Hughes won the ball and fed Mateta, who teed up Nketiah. But the shot was not strong enough to trouble Alisson much.

The Liverpool ‘keeper had to be more alert when another defensive mix-up gave Eze a chance. After the resulting corner, Alisson was forced into an unconvincing punch and Van Dijk got away with grabbing Guehi.

Hooper was making fewer and fewer friends as he doled out three quick yellow cards to Palace players. The home fans asked, “Who’s the Scouser in the black?” and suggested the referee did not know what he was doing.

Selhurst Park sniffed a comeback when Alisson went off injured with 15 minutes to go and Czech ‘keeper Jaros came on for his Reds debut.

Hughes hooked a shot wide and then Palace failed to make the most of a nervous first clearance by Jaros.But the biggest opportunity came when the home side broke three on one. Mateta eventually played in Eze, but he hit his shot straight at Jaros who caught it easily.

The home side had six minutes of stoppage time to find an equaliser.