Crystal Palace 1-2 Liverpool: Player ratings

Liverpool moved to the top of the Premier League after a dramatic 2-1 win over Crystal Palace on Saturday lunchtime.

Playing their second game in four days, the Reds were flat at Selhurst Park and were fortunate not to be behind at the break after first Alisson, then a VAR review came to the side’s rescue.

The sluggish start to the game continued into the second half and Palace did indeed get a penalty in the 55th minute after a sloppy foul by Jarell Quansah. Jean-Philippe Mateta duly stepped up to convert.

However, the game changed completely in the 75th minute when Jordan Ayew received his marching orders for a second yellow card.

Just a minute later, the scores were level. Mohamed Salah scored his 200th Liverpool goal via a massive deflection off Nathaniel Clyne to set up a grandstand finish.

Then, into 10 minutes of stoppage time, substitute Harvey Elliott found a gap on the edge of the box to fire home the winner.

Here are our player ratings.

Alisson (GK): 9

Good to have him back, isn’t it? Made a world-class save from point-blank range to deny Jefferson Lerma after 26 minutes, then came to his side's rescue once again, deep into stoppage time, to prevent a sure-fire Joachim Andersen equaliser via a close-range header. Stood no chance with the penalty, hit straight down the middle.

Trent Alexander-Arnold (RB): 6

Showed off his excellent passing range in the first half - something Klopp would have hoped to benefit from in the second 45 by moving him into midfield. Put in some excellent freekicks that Darwin should have done better with.

Jarell Quansah (CB): 4

Made a shaky start, giving the ball away in a dangerous area to set Palace away on the counter-attack. He then compounded his uncertain first half by conceding a needless penalty in the 55th minute, kicking through Mateta when Van Dijk was in a position to cover. Hooked immediately after.

Virgil van Dijk (CB): 6

The only member of the backline to come away with any credit, winning his individual battles.

Kostas Tsimikas (LB): 5

It’s taken a while, but he finally seems to be connecting better with Luis Diaz down the left. That said, he struggled to make any headway against a very compact Palace defence.

Wataru Endo (DM): 4

Was fortunate (in the sense that the referee needed around 30 looks at it) that VAR came to his rescue after he was bullied off the ball by Will Hughes and the Crystal Palace penalty was overturned. Didn’t have his most assured game; in fact it was quite chaotic. That’s why he was unceremoniously withdrawn at half time.

Dominik Szoboszlai (CM): 5

Seems to have gone slightly off the boil since his impressive early days with the Reds, but was nonetheless still full of running and was excellent in the recoveries. Subbed off as Liverpool pursued the equaliser.

Ryan Gravenberch (CM): 4

He’s going to be an excellent player when it really clicks for him. But today it didn’t. Very little of what he tried came off.

Mohamed Salah (RW): 7

Completely anonymous for the first hour but was there when his team most needed it to equalise moments after Ayew’s red card with his 200th goal for Liverpool. He also managed to pop up with an assist for Elliott’s winner.

Darwin Nunez (ST): 5

Drifted a lot into wide areas (and offside positions) during a quiet first half. Came close to connecting with Luis Diaz’s cross-cum-shot just after the break and ought to have done better to reach two excellent freekicks from Alexander-Arnold. The Uruguayan was substituted just before Ayew’s red card. With hindsight, it might have been better to keep him on for the final onslaught.

Luis Diaz (LW): 6

Liverpool’s most lively attacking player, but found it difficult to create much beyond a few shots from the edge of the box.

Substitutes:

Joe Gomez (Endo, 46'): 4

Was very wild in possession when he first came on and took too long to settle into the right-back position.

Cody Gakpo (Gravenberch, 57'): 5

Played a rather strange hybrid midfield-wing role. Besides giving away some frustrating fouls, he had little impact.

Ibrahima Konate (Quansah, 57'): 5

With Liverpool mostly on the attack since his introduction, he had very little to do.

Harvey Elliott (Nunez, 74'): 8

He was only on the field for 20 minutes, but made a massive impact. Showed great energy and endeavour and was rewarded by scoring the winning goal.

Curtis Jones (Szoboszlai, 74'): 6

Looked bright when he came on and laid on Salah’s goal with a composed pass in a congested penalty area.