Liverpool beat Crystal Palace 3-1 at Selhurst Park, with goals from Alexis Mac Allister, Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak lifting the Reds to fourth in the Premier League and leaving Palace bottom of the table.
Liverpool returned to winning ways with a 3-1 victory over Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park on Sunday, three goals from three different scorers settling a Premier League match that Palace had threatened to take for long stretches. Alexis Mac Allister headed the visitors in front five minutes before half-time, Florian Wirtz doubled the lead nine minutes after the restart, and Alexander Isak added a third a minute from the end of normal time. Eddie Nketiah's stoppage-time penalty was no more than a consolation for the hosts.
Palace had the better of the opening exchanges. Daichi Kamada rattled the crossbar in the 18th minute, Jørgen Strand Larsen had a goal ruled out for offside, and Alisson Becker produced a string of saves — from Kamada's volley, from Yéremy Pino and from Quinten Timber's follow-up — that kept Liverpool level until Mac Allister met Dominik Szoboszlai's free-kick at the near post. The second half followed a similar pattern until Wirtz, fed by Bradley Barcola's run down the right, swept home a first-time finish in the 54th minute. Isak, denied one-on-one by Dean Henderson minutes earlier, made no mistake from Wirtz's pass in the 89th, his shot deflecting beyond the goalkeeper. Nketiah converted from the spot in the fifth minute of stoppage time after Dario Osorio was fouled.
The result lifts Liverpool to 18 points from ten matches, fourth in the table and nine behind leaders Arsenal, after back-to-back defeats — to Arsenal last weekend and at Fenerbahçe in midweek — had piled pressure on the champions. Palace, beaten for a fourth straight league game, sit bottom of the table with seven points, and the defeat deepens the scrutiny on Pierre Sage, who took over as manager in the summer.
The match facts are consistent across the two clubs' own reports and independent coverage: the scoreline, the scorers and the order of the goals all agree, with one small exception — one outlet timed Isak's strike to the 88th minute, while both clubs' reports put it in the 89th. Palace can reasonably feel the margin flattered Liverpool. Kamada hit the woodwork, Strand Larsen had a goal disallowed for a narrow offside, Alisson was forced into a series of fine saves. But the decisive moments went Liverpool's way, and two of the three goals came from the kind of ruthless finishing Palace could not match.
For Liverpool, the win steadies a side that arrived in south London having lost two in a row and answers, for now, the questions that followed those defeats. Eighteen points from ten games leaves them within reach of the top three heading into the international break, with Manchester United next at Anfield. For Palace, the problems are more immediate: seven points from a possible thirty, a fourth consecutive league defeat, and a squad that created enough to win and still lost by two. Sage's side at least showed fight in the second half, but the table does not reward performances.
The international break now intervenes for both clubs. Liverpool return against Manchester United in a fortnight, and Palace must use the pause to regroup at the foot of the table, where every dropped point makes the climb back that much steeper.