Liverpool beat Crystal Palace 3-1 at Selhurst Park on Sunday, with Alexis Mac Allister, Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak all scoring to settle the contest long before Eddie Nketiah's stoppage time penalty gave the home side the mildest of consolations. For Andoni Iraola's side, it was exactly the response they needed after a wretched few days. For Pierre Sage, it was another afternoon that will do nothing to ease the growing noise around his position.
Liverpool had arrived at Selhurst Park off the back of two straight defeats, a 1-0 loss at home to Arsenal that ended a five match unbeaten run, followed by a 3-2 Champions League defeat away at Fenerbahce in which they twice surrendered a lead. Iraola had made no secret of what was required beforehand, telling reporters simply that his side needed a win away at Crystal Palace and had to do a good job to get back on track. They did exactly that, climbing to fourth in the table with the win.
For Palace, there was no such lift. The defeat extended their miserable run to a fifth straight loss in the Premier League and dropped them to the bottom of the table on seven points from ten games, with a goal difference of minus fourteen that is already the worst in the division.
A response Iraola had demanded
The breakthrough came just before the half hour mark when Mac Allister rose highest to head home a cross from Dominik Szoboszlai, and Liverpool doubled their lead early in the second half through Wirtz, who finished off a move started by Bradley Barcola. Isak, so often the man to settle these games this season, added a third with a minute of normal time remaining, converting after Wirtz had done the hard work to create the chance.
It was a scrappier afternoon than the scoreline suggests. Ronald Araujo was booked early for a foul on Palace's left side, and Barcola followed him into the referee's notebook with a similarly rash challenge later on. Victor Munoz and Mac Allister were also cautioned as the game grew increasingly stretched in the closing stages, while Palace's Yeremy Pino and Jefferson Lerma picked up bookings of their own as frustration crept in. There were no red cards, but four yellows for the visitors is an unusually high number for a side that controlled large spells of the match so comfortably.
Nketiah's penalty, won deep into stoppage time after a challenge inside the box, gave the home crowd something to cheer before the final whistle, but it barely registered against the bigger picture. Liverpool have now won three of their last four away league games, and Iraola will be far more interested in the response his side showed after a difficult week than the manner of the eventual scoreline.
Sage's problems run deeper than one afternoon
Sage's difficulties did not begin on Sunday and they will not end there either. Palace have now lost their last several Premier League matches without managing to find consistent attacking threat, and the manager, appointed over the summer after winning the Coupe de France with RC Lens, called the defeat in his previous league outing at Tottenham "a disaster." Reports before the Liverpool game had already linked Sage with being among the favourites to be the next Premier League manager to lose his job, and this result will do nothing to quiet that talk.
Some of what has gone wrong at Selhurst Park sits with recruitment as much as coaching. Marc Guehi was sold in January without a direct replacement brought in, while Daniel Munoz and Maxence Lacroix both left in the summer, taking a significant amount of defensive know-how with them. The results have shown, with Palace already having conceded several goals from set pieces alone this season and possession statistics that suggest Sage's preferred pressing, front foot approach simply is not suited to the players currently available to him. Ismaila Sarr remains out with a groin injury, Adam Wharton's form has dipped sharply from last season's heights, and top scorer Jean-Philippe Mateta will now miss Palace's next three matches after his recent red card, removing their most reliable source of goals at the worst possible moment.
There is a layer of irony sitting over all of this. Palace go into the international break as the reigning UEFA Conference League champions and bottom of the Premier League table, a gap between continental pedigree and domestic reality that few would have predicted when Sage succeeded Oliver Glasner over the summer.
What it means from here
Liverpool's win moves them up to fourth, nine points off the top of the table, and gives Iraola a platform to build on heading into the international break rather than more awkward questions about back to back defeats. For a squad containing the talent Liverpool have at their disposal, this was the kind of response expected of them, even if the manner of victory raises its own small questions about discipline that Iraola will want ironed out.
For Palace, the picture is considerably bleaker. A home record this poor, a defence conceding at this rate, and a manager already facing speculation about his future make for a difficult mix heading into the week off. Whether Sage gets time to work through Palace's deeper structural issues, or whether patience runs out before he gets the chance, is likely to be one of the bigger storylines in the division when football returns.
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