Jota pushes leaders Liverpool past Palace as Alisson exits injured | Premier League

Liverpool is a club that thrives on emotions. There’s no shame in that. What is the purpose of football other than to swell emotions? But if it was love at first sight with Jürgen Klopp, when will the faithful fall in love with Arne Slot? He had a great start to the season and was top of the table when Arsenal and Manchester City were running away. He could hardly have done a better job. Too cool for school? Possibly. A remnant of the final days of the Klopp romance that ended so bittersweet? Almost certainly.

Slot himself is happy to stay cool and distant. “Nine out of nine wins would have been brilliant,” he grumbled before kick-off. There will be no pogo on the sidelines, no bearish screams, even if he can be demonstrative in the technical area.

After the improvements Palace made last season under Oliver Glasner, it has been a difficult season so far. They started as one of five clubs that had yet to record a win. The wait continues, a decline that has seen Eberechi Eze and Adam Wharton demoted from England duties. Michael Olise will be sorely missed. Without his accomplice, Eze finds it much harder to get somewhere. Wharton, still only 20, is struggling with his workload. There were only fleeting signs of the player he was looking for in the spring, but he still played a role in a move that might have seen Palace take the lead in the first minute. Wharton played in Ismaïla Sarr, only for Eddie Nketiah to trigger the offside trap.

Slot’s selection was a reshuffling of the legacy Klopp left behind and it paid off with his side’s winning goal in the ninth minute. Kostas Tsimikas stepped in for Andy Robertson, who hasn’t been quite himself lately, and the Greek left-back’s lovely ball moved Cody Gakpo into position in the wing role he had made his name with at PSV Eindhoven Diogo Jota. Liverpool’s best finisher got ahead of Trevoh Chalobah, the Palace debutant, to score. Three simple decisions that each pay off.

There was still bad news for Glasner. Daniel Muñoz, the full-back whose arrival in January helped stabilize the team, limped off the pitch. Palace spent much of the first half sitting deep while Liverpool searched for a second half, playing the patient alien during the ecstatic romance of the Klopp era. As several corners piled up, Liverpool’s players sought help from Aaron Briggs, the set-piece coach. Virgil van Dijk headed a header over towards the end of the first period, in which Selhurst Park was appeased by Liverpool’s dominance.

Ryan Gravenberch, converted to midfielder, is the most obvious renewal under Slot, but until some desperate – and effective – defenders appeared in the closing stages, the rest shows an organization often abandoned by the previous incumbent.

The slot strategy in the second half seemed to be to finish the game, sit deep and apply pressure to trigger a counterattack. Where he may have lost out with Liverpool fans so far is his dispassionate pragmatism. Glasner moved on, replacing Wharton with Will Hughes and Jean-Philippe Mateta, who joined the attack. The Frenchman immediately set up Nketiah for a pin-sharp strike, which a sprawling Alisson did well to save as Palace finally began to fizz.

Still, Jota should have finished the competition. Again on Briggs’ instruction, Trent Alexander-Arnold placed a free-kick at his head, but the striker’s header went horribly wide. Would Liverpool regret this? Or finish the job?

A Gakpo dribble set up half-time substitute Dominik Szoboszlai for a shot that hit Henderson’s stomach. Next, Eze forced a save from Alisson, who saved the resulting corner. That was the Brazilian’s last action. The goalkeeper left injured and was replaced by Vitezslav Jaros, the Czech played his first game in Liverpool.

Slot’s anger began to boil on the sidelines as his team struggled to clear their lines. When Eze, who had now found space, galloped towards the goal, Jaros had his first test. He parried well and held the ball to his chest as Eze couldn’t find enough purchase.

Liverpool completed their victory and continued their exemplary start. Even if the thrill of the hunt is no longer as great as it was under Klopp, their chances of success are just as real as they were in the wild and crazy years.