SAS Strike Again- Liverpool vs Crystal Palace

Yesterday (Saturday 5^th October), Liverpool hosted Crystal Palace at Anfield. Palace sat 19^th in the table, and Liverpool were certainly the favourites going into the game. They did not disappoint; the game was essentially over after 38 minutes, by which time Liverpool were 3-0 up. Palace got a consolation towards the end of the 2^nd half, and the game finished 3-1.

As is becoming customary for Rodgers’ Liverpool, the hosts were quick out of the traps. They were all over Palace within minutes, and got their reward just 14 minutes in. Somewhat inevitably, it was scored by Luis Suarez, who since his return from suspension has reminded us why it’s so hard to hate him. After going to ground, he produced a wonderful piece of improvisation to somehow hit the ball in. In the lead-up to the goal he combined excellently with Jose Enrique. This is a sign that the 3-5-2 that Rodgers has used in the last couple of games is working well, as it allowed Enrique to play in a much more advanced role than if he were playing as an out-and-out full back. He should definitely stick with this formation, as the two striker positions allow the Suarez and Sturridge partnership to flourish.

Perhaps partly due to this, it was Sturridge who struck next, just three minutes after the first goal. Suarez’ goal was special, but Sturridge’s was arguably even better! He cleverly jinked past three players, before firing the ball past Julian Speroni from a tight angle. This put Liverpool in a dominant position in the game, but they did not sit back. Throughout the first half they continued to press Palace, and in the 38^th minute they reaped their reward by adding a third. Raheem Sterling (in for the suspended Lucas) played a ball to Suarez, who cleverly tried to return the ball by dinking it over Dean Moxey and back into Sterling’s path. It would have come off beautifully, had Moxey not pulled Sterling back. The incident was adjudged by the referee to be inside the box (though it was dubious), and Gerrard converted the subsequent spot kick with ease, setting yet another club record by scoring in a 15^th consecutive season.

Unfortunately, the 2^nd half was (you guessed it) extremely underwhelming. AS has been the case in virtually all of our games this season, the players dropped the tempo significantly in the second period, and even invited some pressure from the visitors. Palace were able to create a couple of decent chances, and scored one in the 76^th minute throughout Dwight Gayle. Though admittedly Liverpool never looked in danger of failing to win the game, in what is shaping up to be an extremely competitive Premier League season goal difference could be important come the end of the season. Had we not conceded in the second half, but instead come out and continued to be positive, we would now be top of the league instead of second, remaining behind Arsenal due to fewer goals scored. If we want to stay so high up in the league, we will need to up our game in the 2^nd half. I’m frankly getting bored of writing this in my articles, so hopefully they’ll soon take the hint and step it up!

That said, we certainly can’t complain about the weekend as a whole. Everton’s unbeaten run finally came to an end, and more significantly West Brom held Arsenal to a 1-1 draw. The icing on the cake was West Ham’s rather improbable 3-0 thrashing of Tottenham! All in all, as the weekend draws to a close, I’m feeling very satisfied (in terms of football at any rate). Although the 2^nd half performance was once again not up to scratch, at least we were able to get the win. Last season we had a tendency to only manage draws against ‘small’ teams, and this season teams like Spurs and Man City are proving vulnerable to weaker teams, so it is important to get the win. If we can keep this up, we’ll be a long way to securing that Champions League spot we all crave.

-James Martin

Follow me on Twitter @JamesMartin013