Lady Luck is certainly watching over Liverpool this season. The Reds are, no doubt, in excellent form, unlike in 2022, but they still had a few games this season when they were a bit lucky to get good results, despite bad performance. It all started with a 1-0 defeat from Newcastle until the 80th minute, which finished 2-1 for the Reds. Then Jurgen Klopp’s boys were on the losing side against sorry Luton until the 94th minute but managed a draw. Next on the line was Fulham 10 days ago, when they went from 3-2 in the 80th minute to a 4-3 win at the end. And today, that lucky streak continued in London against Crystal Palace: 1-0 until the 76th minute, but a 2-1 win over the Eagles in the end, and a top place in the Premier League.200 – Mohamed Salah has scored his 200th goal for Liverpool in all competitions, becoming only the fifth player in the club’s history to reach that landmark. Prolific. pic.twitter.com/0cJYgQByiv— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) December 9, 2023 Liverpool played badly today; they only had possession in their favour and nothing else; they only had two shots on target, but those two shots were three goals, and nobody in the famous club will care how they did it; they are at the top of the league. And considering that Arsenal has a very tricky game in Birmingham against Villa, it’s realistic to imagine that the Reds will remain first until next week at least.Before the real excitement began, there were only two interesting things in this pretty boring game. The Brazilian Allison came back to Liverpool’s goal and made the save of the day in the 28th minute after Lerma excellent shot, clearing the ball off the line. Palace got the penalty a minute later, but VAR made two out of two today with both good decisions, and this one was the first. Will Hughes made an offensive foul before the penalty, and the decision was overruled. The second half was also boring, but Palace was still better and deserved the lead, which came in the 56th minute, again after VAR intervened, and again it was a good decision. Mateta was precise, and from there on, the exciting part began. Liverpool decided to start playing football, but it’s a real question if they would score anything if Ayew didn’t make an unnecessary foul in the 75th minute. The referee gave him a rather soft card (again, Lady Luck’s intervention for Liverpool), and it was his second of the day. Just a minute later, Mohamed Salah equalized with his 200th goal for the guests, and Palace was in the defensive mode. Elliott gave his side an undeserved victory in injury time for the win and the first place. ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE – MATCHDAY 16SaturdayCrystal Palace – Liverpool 1-2 (0-0)/Mateta 57 – Salah 76, Elliott 90+1/18.00: (4.60) Sheffield Utd (3.60) Brentford (1.80)18.00: (1.50) Brighton (4.30) Burnley (6.50)18.00: (1.55) Man.Utd. (4.10) Bournemouth (6.00)18.00: (1.90) Wolverhampton (3.60) Nott.Forest (4.50)20.30: (3.45) Aston Villa (3.50) Arsenal (2.20)Sunday17.00: (14.0) Luton (8.00) Man.City (1.20)17.00: (3.20) Everton (3.40) Chelsea (2.25)17.00: (2.45) Fulham (3.50) West Ham (3.05)19.30: (2.20) Tottenham (3.60) Newcastle (3.40)***odds are subject to change**
