LONDON -- What goes around, comes around. Having become the masters of scoring late in the Premier League this season, Liverpool saw their familiar script flipped on Saturday afternoon when they suffered a last-gasp 2-1 victory at the hands of an ascendent Crystal Palace.
After being comprehensively outplayed during a first half in which Ismalia Sarr's ninth-minute goal gave the hosts a deserved lead, Arne Slot's side thought they had done enough to snatch a precious point thanks to Federico Chiesa's strike in the 87th minute. Palace, though, ensured their visitors got a taste of their own medicine, with substitute Eddie Nketiah rifling home the winner in the final seconds of the game.
The victory moves Palace up to second in the Premier League table and extends their unbeaten run to 18 games in all competitions. However, perhaps the biggest victory for the South London club came last month in the boardroom, when chairman Steve Parish put the brakes on captain Marc Guhi's deadline day transfer to Anfield.
This was an afternoon when the England defender's importance to Palace -- and Liverpool's defensive frailties -- were laid bare. In fact, the hosts' dominance in the first half was such that Slot and his players may well have shook hands on a narrow defeat at the break.
- Premier League recap: Liverpool stunned, Man City score five
- Lindop: Chiesa is here to win and has a chance to do it
- First-month grades for all 20 Premier League teams: From A+ to F
Sarr -- who now has five goals in eight career games against Liverpool -- put Palace ahead after nine minutes after the visitors failed to deal with an early corner, before both Yeremy Pino and Daniel Muoz forced Alisson Becker into fine saves to keep the game in the balance. The Liverpool supporters in the away end at Selhurst Park could perhaps be forgiven for casting admiring glances at the impressive Guehi, who barely put a foot wrong while Ibrahima Konat struggled to handle the threat of the ever-lively Jean Philippe-Mateta.
In a week when an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury to 18-year-old centre-back Giovanni Leoni put Liverpool's defensive options in the spotlight, Guehi's quiet brilliance offered the champions a painful reminder of what could have been. At the other end of the pitch, too, Liverpool toiled despite the abundance of attacking talent on the pitch.
In the first half, British-record signing Alexander Isak completed just one of his four passes and while his influence grew significantly after the break, he was substituted off the pitch to cries of "What a waste of money!" by the Palace supporters. Fellow summer arrival Florian Wirtz also took time to impose himself on the game, while Mohamed Salah's biggest contribution of the afternoon arguably game when he deflected Dominik Szoboszlai's goal-bound shot wide of the net.
Instead, it fell to substitute Chiesa to restore parity for Liverpool, finishing smartly past Dean Henderson from close range to set his team on course for another late escape. Had Slot's side managed to see the game through, Chiesa's strike would have constituted their fifth result-changing goal in the final 10 minutes this season; no other Premier League team has more than two.
Whether those numbers are down to quality, perseverance or sheer good luck, the law of averages suggested that Liverpool were always likely to fall foul of a moment of late magic at some point. And so it proved, with former Arsenal man Nketiah giving his old club a huge early-season boost in the title race when he struck with virtually the last kick of the game, after Liverpool failed to deal with a long throw by Jefferson Lerma, to propel the home crowd into dreamland.
"We can only blame ourselves by defending the way we did," Slot admitted in his postmatch news conference. "One of our players [Jeremie Frimpong] decided to run out because he wanted to play counter-attack, which was of no use because time was up. It was only about defending. Maybe we were too offensively minded, or one player was too offensively minded, which led to them scoring the winner and us losing the game."
That it was Guehi who assisted Palace's winner, flicking on Lerma's throw, will only serve to rub further salt in the wound for Liverpool, who would be wise to test the waters with another offer for the defender in January if they hope to compete on all fronts this term.
"I expect it from Marc," Palace boss Oliver Glasner said of his captain's display. "It's exactly what I knew Marc would show because he shows everything. He shows every training how good he is and what a fantastic person he is. That is even more important than how good he is as a player.
"He's so focused on his game. He's so focused on our game again and he just showed that again today."
For Liverpool, this is not a fatal blow by any means, but it's one they must learn from quickly if they are to avoid conceding momentum in the title race to rivals Arsenal, who visit Newcastle on Sunday. Last season, after suffering a similarly dispiriting defeat to Nottingham Forest in September, Slot's side went 26 league games unbeaten and romped to the title; the Liverpool boss will back his team to offer a similarly resounding response this term.
For Palace, meanwhile, this is a result that showed just how far the club has come under the stewardship of Glasner, who has now equalled the record for most league games unbeaten (12) as Palace manager. As the home supporters spilled out of Selhurst Park on Saturday afternoon, they launched into a jubilant chorus of "we're gonna win the league!"
Only time will tell if that prophecy is fulfilled but they have, at least, made Liverpool's quest to retain their Premier League crown significantly more difficult.
