The reaction to the final whistle painted the picture of a hugely damaging week for Liverpool. Jürgen Klopp congratulated Oliver Glasner on a Crystal Palace victory that reverberates at both ends of the table before puffing out his cheeks and shaking his head in despair. Andy Robertson sank to his haunches and into a trance. Disconsolate home fans filed out in silence. In a title race with the tightest margins, Liverpool have blinked first.
Soundly beaten in the first leg of the Europa League quarter-finals by Atalanta on Thursday, Liverpool faltered again at Anfield as Eberechi Eze’s early goal rewarded Palace’s first-half superiority and ultimately lifted their prospects of Premier League safety. The club responsible for Klopp’s first Premier League defeat may have holed his chances of winning the league in the process. Liverpool have lost two successive home games for the first time since March 2021, the behind-closed-doors Covid season, and for the first time in front of supporters since January 2017. Sloppy throughout the first half, wasteful throughout the second, a team that was fighting on four fronts a month ago have only themselves to blame.
