Key events
6 min: Eze drives down the left before switching play to Munoz on the other flank. He fires a low, hard cross into the six-yard box, forcing Van Dijk to block out for a corner. From which …
4 min: Van Dijk plays a glorious crossfield pass towards Salah on the right touchline, where a one-two with Alexander-Arnold doesn’t come off. Both teams showing plenty of ambition in these early exchanges.
2 min: What a start that would have been for Palace. Brentfordesque. The move started by Lerma winning a 50-50 with Gravenberch in the midfield. Liverpool breathe again.
21 seconds: Crystal Palace have the ball in the net! Wharton slips a pass down the inside-right channel for Sarr, who rolls into the centre for Nketiah. The striker lifts the ball over Alisson and in! But the flag goes up. He’s gone too soon.
Crystal Palace get the ball rolling. The hosts are kicking towards the Whitehorse Lane Stand in this first half.
The teams are out! Crystal Palace are red and blue and Glad All Over. The usual magnificent atmosphere at Selhurst. Liverpool meanwhile are in crisp third-choice white with black shorts; a proper 1987 Littlewoods Cup final vibe, if memories of Crystanbul haven’t been painful enough. Apologies to Matt Dony. We’ll be off in a couple of minutes!
Pre-match postbag. “There have been 60 games thus far in the Premier League, 21 home wins, 21 home losses, 18 ties. Are we overstating the home advantage?” – Gary Stover
“Do the suits give the 1230 slot more frequently to Liverpool because Slot dislikes it or does Slot dislike it more because the suits scheduling it more frequently? Anyway, Slot has one escape route should they drop points today” – krishnamoorthy v
“At the risk of annoying a lot of people, there’s an internet phenomenon known as The Game. The aim of The Game is simply to not think about The Game. When you think about The Game, you immediately lose The Game. And you are always playing The Game. As a Liverpool fan, I play a very similar game. The aim of this game is, Don’t Think About The 3-3 Draw Away To Palace. And I just lost it. Again. It happens a surprising amount” – Matt Dony
Oliver Glasner speaks to TNT. “Ismaïla [Sarr] had very good performances when he came into the game … always a positive impact … he has a lot of pace … we expect Liverpool to play very dominant … there will be space in behind … we hope he can find and use this space and score goals … Trevoh [Chalobah] seems to be ready … we don’t know if he will be able to play 95 or 100 minutes but he looked pretty good in training … we want to play against Liverpool … we want to compete with the best teams … today nobody expects the three points but we want it … we will give everything we have to get the win … we will see … it is football, it is sports … we want to play Liverpool, gorgeous weather, great playing at Selhurst Park at 12.30 … we feel ready so let’s go!”
Arne Slot talks to TNT Sports and is asked about Liverpool’s “brilliant” start to the season. “Brilliant would have been nine [wins] out of nine! … this has been a very good start … the key is we haven’t changed that much … the players and staff have bought in … working hard … the fixture list has also been good to us … today it’s a difficult one, so let’s see … we do a lot of things well … but if we want to stay where we are and compete with even tougher opponents we have to find another gear … against Wolves we started really slow … against the low block against Forest we had problems … you will never reach perfection but we aim for that … it’s a good moment for Curtis Jones to start, also because he’s not going to go to the international games … every away game around the world is difficult … it’s very important not to get the crowd going … we have to be aggressive without the ball … help the crowd not to be as loud as they can be.”
Crystal Palace make two changes after the 2-1 defeat at Everton last weekend. Trevoh Chalobah, on loan from Chelsea, makes his debut, while Ismaïla Sarr starts on the wing; Daichi Kamada and Jean-Philippe Mateta drop to the bench.
Liverpool make four changes to the team sent out to beat Bologna 2-0 on Wednesday night. Curtis Jones, Cody Gakpo, Diogo Jota and Kostas Tsimikas are in; Dominik Szoboszlai, Luis Díaz, Darwin Núñez and Andrew Robertson are benched.
The teams
Crystal Palace: Henderson, Chalobah, Guehi, Lacroix, Munoz, Wharton, Lerma, Mitchell, Sarr, Nketiah, Eze.
Subs: Turner, Ward, Mateta, Schlupp, Clyne, Kamada, Hughes, Umeh, Kporha.
Liverpool: Alisson, Alexander-Arnold, Konate, van Dijk, Tsimikas, Jones, Mac Allister, Salah, Gravenberch, Gakpo, Jota.
Subs: Jaros, Gomez, Endo, Diaz, Szoboszlai, Nunez, Robertson, Quansah, Bradley.
Referee: Simon Hooper (Wiltshire).
Preamble
Crystal Palace have yet to win a Premier League game this season, while Liverpool are top of the table having won five of their first six. Add in the fact that the Reds have won eight of their last nine league visits to Selhurst Park, drawing the other, and there’s a fair chance you’ll be putting this down as an away banker this lunchtime. But look at it another way. Palace are surely too good not to snap their winless streak sooner rather than later; Liverpool surely can’t keep winning their away fixtures this season forever; and despite their great recent record at Selhurst, there’s always something nagging away at the back of Mersey minds … because Crystanbul left a lot of scar tissue. So good luck confidently predicting the outcome of this game, which could see Liverpool confidently extend their lead at the top, Palace get their season going belatedly, or anything in between. Kick-off is at 12.30pm BST. It’s on!
