Reds get a taste of their own medicine

This time Slot's men fall to last-gasp goal in deserved defeat at Palace

- By PAUL GORST

Eddie Nketiah scores the winning goal for Palace

In a season characterised by late drama and last gasp winners, Liverpool retold the tale once more at Selhurst Park ...only this time, the tables were turned and it was nothing less than Crystal Palace deserved.

On another day, against another team, Palace would have been home and hosed long before substitute Eddie Nketiah rifled home in the 97th minute.

But having been made to dig deep for decisive interventions in all but one of their seven games prior to this fixture, Liverpool found that their famed powers of resilience had waned and it was their hosts who gave the Premier League champions a taste of their own medicine when it looked as though Arne Slot's men had pilfered a draw.

With a five-point cushion at the start of the weekend, defeat in south London is no catastrophe but it does prove the Reds are not infallible and having showcased their admirable qualities of coming on strong late in games, this might prove to be a timely jolt to the system.

This was a Liverpool performance that was well below the standard Slot has come to expect and it's testament to their mental strength and fitness levels that they were even in with a chance of stealing a point in stoppage time, given the paucity of what had been served up for so much of this 2-1 defeat.