Same Shoe, Other Foot

After so many games decided in our favor with late goals since the beginning of the season, it was practically foretold that we’ll get to experience one ourselves soon enough. That it happened at Selhurst Park is no surprise; Palace are already shaping up to be the dark horse of this season, just like Forest were last year. Forest, incidentally, were the one early loss last season, too, a warning sign, perhaps, to the rest of the league.

Still, let’s be honest with ourselves. Palace should have closed the game out in the first half, and were it not for the obvious man-of-the-match, Alisson, they would easily be three or even four up before kicking the ball for the second. Chiesa almost snatched an entirely undeserved point, and had the ref not mysteriously added an extra couple of minutes on top of the stated six of extra time, Liverpool would have again benefited from its own late goal to escape with a draw.

As a result, even though the outcome may seem unlucky to merseysiders, this is also the first game this season that had truly felt lucky to me. Liverpool had given, in the aggregate, less than 10 shots on target across its first five premier league games, and were mostly unlucky that so many went in. Today, in one game, Liverpool gave away seven, mostly excellent chances. That stat alone tells the story of this game. Liverpool were lucky to only concede two.

Nor would I want to diminish the performance from the Eagles. They played a lively game, creating chance after chance, and in long stretches making the Reds seem quite miserable. It’s clear that this Liverpool team isn’t clicking quite yet, which is understandable, but Palace are the first team to have truly exploited that so far, and in doing so, made the multitude of communications gaps in the Reds’ game glaringly obvious.

Did anyone in Red (except Ali, of course) play particularly well?

It’s hard to come up with a name. Szobo and Gravenberch were alright, I suppose, but the rest of the starting 11 were anywhere between muted and shameful. The subs did a bit better, and the game really did turn around through most of the second half; Chiesa’s goal was no surprise. If anything, by the time we got to the dying minutes, Liverpool had the momentum, and this may contribute to the misplaced sense of the outcome being unlucky.

Kudos to Oliver Glasner and his spirited squad for capitalizing on the opportunity to embarrass the champions. They earned their win, and it’s not hard to see them continuing to do well. I am indeed actively avoiding talking about Guehi, but I’ll say this: Konate’s and Guehi’s performances were opposites of each other.

I’ll let you guess which was the good one, and which the bad.

Nice to have had a five point buffer going into this weekend, isn’t it?