Liverpool 3-1 Crystal Palace: Premier League Match Report

Liverpool 3-1 Crystal Palace was two clear at half-time and stayed two clear to the end. The interval score was 2-0; the second period finished 1-1. Palace got on the board after the break without ever getting close enough for the result to be in doubt.

Liverpool arrived fifth on 55 points from 33 matches with a goal difference of +11, three behind Aston Villa and Manchester United on 58 and firmly inside the argument for the qualification places with five rounds to go. Their previous two had been wins — 2-0 over Fulham, 2-1 at Everton — which followed a difficult run: 1-2 at Wolverhampton, 1-1 with Tottenham, 1-2 at Brighton. Three matches in which they had scored once each time and taken one point.

Palace were 13th on 43 from 32 with -1, a game in hand and nothing left to play for at either end. They had drawn 0-0 at West Ham in their previous match and 0-0 with Leeds before that, part of a low-scoring spring that also contained a 3-1 win at Tottenham. They had beaten Liverpool 2-1 at Selhurst Park in September, which was the last time these clubs met and the one reason to think the price was short.

Liverpool went to 58 points and a goal difference of +13, drawing level with the clubs occupying third and fourth and making it three wins in a row after the wobble. With three clubs now level on 58 points behind Manchester City and Arsenal, winning by two goals rather than one was the quiet gain — the tiebreak moved as well as the table.

Palace stayed on 43 with the difference falling to -3. Their season had been over as a competitive proposition for weeks, and defeat at Anfield changed nothing about it. Twelve points had separated them; fifteen did by the end of the evening. What Palace kept was the September result, which remains the only evidence from this season that they could beat this opponent.

Our pre-match call was Liverpool Win at 1.40. It came in, and at that price the only question was whether Liverpool's March form had really ended. It had: this was a third straight win and the first in the run in which they scored more than twice. The reverse fixture was the flag we chose to overlook, and rightly — a 2-1 at Selhurst Park in September tells you little about the same fixture at Anfield in April with one side chasing qualification and the other coming off consecutive goalless draws. Verdict: won