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AIn addition to the beauty of his goals, there was brutality in this Liverpool performance. Jurgen Klopp’s team were utterly ruthless in everything they did, cutting through the Crystal Palace defense with minimal fuss and merciless on an afternoon when their forwards were simply untouchable.
When the seventh came in, dug into the top corner from Mohamed Salah’s left boot, Palace manager Roy Hodgson simply turned on his heel and smiled on his bench. Sometimes there really is nothing else to do but laugh. It was that kind of occasion in South London, a Premier League clash reduced to a display of relentless and free attacking football.
On the same ground where Tottenham Hotspur shook and panicked last week, Liverpool were as powerful and precise as they have been at any point this season. There cannot have been many occasions in Klopp’s entire reign where he has played with such composure in front of goal, with such quality in the final third. Fourteen games in the season, they are threatening to run again.
Liverpool didn’t even need Mohamed Salah on the field, although he emerged as a substitute in the second half to further tear the body of their Palace defense, scoring twice in the final 10 minutes to turn this from a humiliation into a beating.
Most of the destruction had already taken place by then, with Roberto Firmino leading the charge with a performance of typical invention and style. The Brazilian scored two of his own and was deft by the superb Sadio Mane and Takumi Minamino, who both scored in the first half. Jordan Henderson huddled in the fourth, before Salah’s presentation ripped apart any remaining fight for Palace players.
The home team’s plans to contain Liverpool fell apart after just three minutes, as the visitors gave an early indication of the kind of mood they were in. The movement started on the right, where Trent Alexander-Arnold made a glorious delivery in the area. Before he had even reached his goal, Henderson could be heard shouting his approval.
“What up,” roared the Liverpool captain, as Mane turned onto Minamino’s path. The Japanese international needed to create just half a meter of space before launching his shot, low and strong, into the corner for his first Premier League goal.
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