Expectations before the game were for a bore draw or a bore game, it was far from it; it was a game where Neil Warnock pleased expectant Palace fans and Liverpool failed at showing their spark, seemingly still shocked from their end of season visit to Selhurst Park last May.
From the off, it looked like the game was going to end in a disaster as after 90 seconds there were two firsts for two of Liverpool’s Summer signings created a goal that reminded me of Jack Wilshire’s assist for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlin’s goal against Scotland during the international break as Adam Lallana hooked a long ball over a number of Palace players where Rickie Lambert picked up the ball and exquisitely slotted his shot past Julian Speroni; in what was only his second start for Liverpool this season due to the absences of Sturridge and Balotelli.
The early goal and the absence of noise from the capacity Liverpool following, allowed Palace fans to continue making Selhurst Park a ground to dread visiting as the supporters rallied behind the Palace players and attempt to push them towards and equaliser. Yannick Bolasie was one of those players that made every play happen for the Eagles on Sunday with his darting runs and visionary decision making skills creating quarter, half and full chances; one of his efforts on goal 14 minutes after Lambert’s opener hit the post with venom before the man who before this game had started two Premier League games, Dwight Gayle whacked in the rebound which revitalised both the Palace team and the fans with Liverpool looking like at this point, were for the taking. It must be said as well, it was Gayle’s third goal against Liverpool in his four Premier League appearances against them.
The first half continued with a huge amount of domination from what was proving to be a very strong Palace side, creating chances and working as a team with a large amount of passion; something that the squad have been running short on for most of the season. By the half time whistle, Crystal Palace’s domination was clear in the stats as the Eagles had eight shots on goal (four more than Liverpool), created five chances (three more than Liverpool) and had made 12 crosses (eight more than Liverpool) – that wasn’t it as Brendan’s Rodgers’ side had made 18 more clearances than the Eagles.
The beginning of the second half was much more evenly matched with both teams clocking up a decent amount of possession with chances being created by both sides. Bolasie was still creating the majority of chances for Palace, leading the counter-attacking mentality as he had been doing in the first half and it wasn’t only Bolasie either as an understanding between Jedinak, Chamakh and Gayle helped the team get into good attacking positions in the middle of the park; helping to pile on the pressure on Liverpool as the game grew older.
After Puncheon was withdrawn from the game by Neil Warnock, Bolasie switched wings and started to give England international Glen Johnson a run for his money and to his credit, he did and that was one Palace’s tactics that moved them into a dominant position as the former Bristol City winger flicked the ball over Lovren’s head who had closed in on the winger, covering his team-mate Johnson before being left in a dangling mess on the floor, allowing Bolasie to find Ledley in the box who slotted it past Mignolet who couldn’t reach the ball in time.
Palace looked like the most likely team to score after the goal as Palace continued to break-down Liverpool’s attempts of getting further up the field towards goal; reducing Brendan Rodgers’ side to long shots, one of which was from Gerrard whom hit it high to the extent he was wishing he was playing Rugby. Skertel then continued to do what he had been doing all game, grabbing the attention from the referee as he committed a foul in prime position for a dangerous free-kick and up-stepped Mile Jedinak who curled his free-kick into the top right hand corner past Mignolet.
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