As well as the beauty of their goals, there was an unavoidable brutality to this Liverpool performance. Jurgen Klopp’s side were utterly ruthless in everything they did, scything through the Crystal Palace defence with minimal fuss and no mercy on an afternoon when their forward players were simply untouchable.
When the seventh went in, searing into the top corner from the left boot of Mohamed Salah, Palace manager Roy Hodgson turned on his heels and smiled exhaustedly at his bench. Sometimes, there really is nothing else to do but laugh. It was that sort of occasion in south London, a Premier League clash reduced to an exhibition of free-wheeling, unrelenting, one-sided attacking football.
At the same ground where Tottenham Hotspur were rattled and panicked last week, Liverpool were as powerful and precise as they have been at any time this season. There cannot have been many occasions in Klopp’s entire reign when they have played with such composure in front of goal, such quality in the final third. Fourteen games into the season, they are threatening to run away with it all over again.
“The boys are capable [of this] but it does not happen every week,” said Klopp, who clearly took some pleasure in the scoreline after they shipped seven goals at Villa Park earlier in the campaign. “Funny season,” he said. “Today it clicked. This is a very intense period and the boys should be very proud of it.”
Liverpool did not even need Mohamed Salah on the pitch, although he did emerge as a second-half substitute to further tear at the carcass of the Palace defence, scoring twice in the final 10 minutes to turn this from a humbling into an outright thrashing. Who can realistically expect to match Liverpool on days like these? Who can realistically expect to stop them from regaining their title?
The bulk of the destruction had already taken place by the time Salah was introduced, with Roberto Firmino leading the charge in a performance of typical invention and style. The Brazilian scored two of his own and was ably supported by the superb Sadio Mane and Takumi Minamino, who both struck in the first half. Jordan Henderson curled in the fourth before Salah’s introduction ripped out whatever fight remained in Palace’s players.
Strange as it may sound, Liverpool were not dominant throughout. In the first half, especially, there were moments where Palace created genuine fear among the visiting backline. But rarely have the champions, or indeed any side in this division, been so devastating in their finishing: their seven goals came from eight shots on target. “Today they all wore their finishing boots,” said Klopp of his players.
As for Hodgson, there really was not much he could say. Palace had been excellent here against Tottenham, another title contender, but on this occasion they had no answer to Liverpool’s supreme finishing.
“I can’t think of anything positive to say at all,” said Hodgson. “We are humiliated by the result. We take it very, very badly. It is the first ever 7-0 defeat I have suffered and that goes for many people in the dressing room. We have to go through a little period of grieving.
“Every player has got to come to terms with it. They have to go home and accept this has happened to us. I am devastated by the fact that it has happened.”
The home side’s plan to contain Liverpool was undone after only three minutes as the visitors gave an early indication of the sort of mood they were in. The move started on the right, where Trent Alexander-Arnold clipped a glorious delivery into the box. Before it had even reached its target, Henderson could be heard bellowing his approval.
“What a pass,” the Liverpool captain roared, as Mane turned it into the path of Minamino. The Japan international needed to create only a half-yard of space before lashing his finish, low and hard, into the corner for his first Premier League goal.
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Their strategy ruined already, Palace might well have shrunk at that point. Instead they reacted well and, irrespective of what happened later, they were probably the better team for much of the first half. If Jordan Ayew had not been hell-bent on torching their best attacking moments, they might well have scored a couple before the Liverpool machine whirred back into gear.
A team like Palace simply cannot afford to waste this many openings against Liverpool and they subsequently paid the price, in painful fashion, for Ayew’s lack of incision. You would not have known it from the confidence of his finish, rattled into the same corner as Minamino’s opener following Firmino’s prodded pass, but this was Mane’s first goal in 10 appearances in all competitions.
The third was savage in its efficiency, with Firmino and Robertson playing a one-two that covered most of the pitch. The speed of the counter-attack, the precision of the passing, the class of Firmino’s finish: it was vintage Liverpool.
The same can be said of their fourth, whipped into the far corner by Henderson after Alexander-Arnold had invited him forward. Down on the touchline, Klopp raised both arms to the sky in celebration of a performance that was beginning to resemble a release of some of the tension Liverpool have felt in this strange, injury-riddled campaign.
It would not have brought much cheer to Palace to see Salah emerge from the bench a few moments later, although at least it was the deadly Mane who departed. Mane was far from happy with the decision but he must have known this game had long been ended as a contest.
Salah soon found Firmino, who dinked in his second of the game, and then headed home from a set piece. Salah’s second, and Liverpool’s seventh, was arguably the best of the lot. Cutting inside from the right, he swirled his finish from the edge of the box into the top corner. It was a finish that summarised a performance of such class that it verged on cruelty.
The Telegraph (UK)
