Having beaten Tottenham Hotspur in mid-week to secure top spot, a trip to Crystal Palace gave Liverpool the chance to guarantee they would be top of the league at Christmas.
Jurgen Klopp made three changes to the team that beat Spurs, resting Mohamed Salah and Curtis Jones to give Takumi Minamino and Naby Keïta chances, while Joel Matip was fit enough to reclaim his place in defence at Rhys Williams’ expense. They continued with their usual 4-3-3 formation.
Roy Hodgson made several changes to the team that drew with West Ham: Christian Benteke was sent off against the Hammers so was suspended as his former club came to town, replaced by Jordan Ayew, but Nathaniel Clyne was available to welcome his former teammates, taking Joel Ward’s spot at right-back. Former Liverpool season ticket holder Scott Dann also missed out, replaced by Gary Cahill, and Jeffrey Schlupp took Andros Townsend’s place on the right flank. They set up in a 4-4-2 shape.
Starting as they meant to go on, Liverpool took the lead immediately. With Cahill shifting across to track Keïta, Sadio Mané picked up the ball in behind, twisted away and squared the ball to the unmarked Minamino. Having instead followed Roberto Firmino, Clyne rushed out to block the shot but Minamino was calm enough to take a touch past him as he dived in, opening up the angle to fire into the far corner.
Liverpool came prepared to break down a stacked defence. From kick-off, Jordan Henderson would drop back alongside the centre-backs, stretching Palace’s front two so Liverpool could easily play out and switch play, also willing to push forward into midfield on the ball.
Liverpool also passed the ball around quickly, making it difficult for Palace to shift across in time before the ball was moved on and they had to move again. Despite Palace playing in a narrow, compact shape, Liverpool were able to pass through the middle thanks to quick interchanges between their technical players. Minamino was always coming inside, swapping positions with Firmino, while Mané would frequently drift across to the left.
This can be seen in Liverpool’s second goal, where they are all working the ball through the middle, only for Cahill to win the ball. However, with Liverpool’s attackers all in such a small area, they quickly pressure him and reclaim the ball. Firmino fed it into Mané to spin and finish.
Liverpool added a third on the counter, winning the ball back in defence and knocking it forward to Firmino dropping deep. The Brazilian spread the ball out to the opposite flank for Andy Robertson to bomb forward and, with Mané curving his run to draw Cahill wide, Firmino ran straight through the gap that opened up between Cheikhou Kouyaté and Cahill to collect the Scot’s cross and finish.
Palace had a few chances of their own at 1-0 by attacking directly, sending long balls to Eberechi Eze and Schlupp running down the flanks or Jordan Ayew. This worked well on the counter, trying to catch out Liverpool’s backline as they were up-field attacking, but was less successful whenever Liverpool could get men back. Nevertheless, their grip on the game was quickly unravelling.
Henderson added a fourth shortly into the second half. This time it was Keïta who had dropped into the backline and pushed forward on the ball, playing into the frontline through the centre. Palace again reclaimed the ball only to immediately lose it to Liverpool players surrounding them and Keïta spread it out to Trent Alexander-Arnold wide right. Alexander-Arnold’s touch brought it onto his left foot, so he opted to simply lay the ball off to Henderson on the edge of the box, the captain scoring with a first-time shot.
Henderson was superb, covering a huge amount of ground as he swapped between positions in defence and midfield in possession; bossing the midfield out of it. He also kept looking to find Mané with balls over the top, although these were less successful.
Firmino added another on the counter. Palace came up for a corner, Liverpool won the ball and Alexander-Arnold found substitute Mohamed Salah with a ball forward, tempting foe Patrick van Aanholt into trying to cut it out only to find it was out of his reach. Salah received the ball, cut inside and slid a pass through to Firmino, who chipped the ball over Vicente Guaita to finish.
The Brazilian had a difficult time finding the net last season and his overall form dipped this year, however he’s been excellent in recent weeks and in this match regained his scoring touch, scoring a brace with two fantastic finishes.
It was the perfect opportunity for Salah to add to his goalscoring tally. The Egyptian got his first from a corner and then added a spectacular second, cutting inside onto his left foot on the edge of the box and curling the ball into the top corner.
Liverpool looked untouchable. There were obvious parallels with the match against Fulham the previous weekend – early kick-offs where the opposition sat back and asked Liverpool to break them down – but where they failed the previous Saturday, they succeeded here. Henderson dropping back enabled them to play out of defence, not getting bogged down breaking through the first line as they had at Craven Cottage, while they pinged the ball around so quickly Palace couldn’t get near them.
It was the perfect performance as they pulled away from their title rivals in time for Christmas.
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