Soccer Football - Premier League - Crystal Palace v Liverpool - Selhurst Park, London, Britain - September 27, 2025 Liverpool manager Arne Slot looks on Action Images via Reuters/Matthew Childs
LONDON (Reuters) -Liverpool boss Arne Slot candidly admitted his team was second best at Crystal Palace on Saturday, rightly accepting the last-minute Eddie Nketiah winner that ended their 100% record this season was thoroughly merited.
But what will most concern the Dutchman is that his side's vulnerabilities, which have been on display in their otherwise winning start to this campaign, were exploited so consistently at Selhurst Park.
Liverpool began this term by giving up two-goal leads against Bournemouth and Newcastle United before snatching victory late on, also needing late winners against Arsenal, Burnley and Atletico Madrid, the latter after another 2-0 lead was squandered.
When Federico Chiesa, one of the heroes against Bournemouth on the first night of the Premier League season, fired home in the 87th minute, it seemed that Liverpool had done it again and punished Palace for their wastefulness in the first half.
Palace's Eddie Nketiah, however, gave Liverpool a taste of their own medicine at the death – one that Slot will hope his charges take as a valuable lesson after a few lucky escapes.
"We take learnings from all the games we have played and we can take even more from a game like this," Slot told Sky Sports.
Palace had deservedly taken an early lead through Ismaila Sarr, who as a Watford player ended Liverpool's unbeaten record in the 28th game of their victorious 2019/20 Premier League campaign and now has five goals in eight games against the Reds.
Both Palace's goals came through set pieces and Slot warned his side need to find their strength in dead ball situations once more, having also conceded from two against Newcastle.
But the poor performance of Ibrahima Konate in open play will prompt alarm bells, with the injury-prone Joe Gomez the only real cover at centre-back after Giovanni Leoni's season-ending injury against Southampton in midweek.
There was no little irony in the fact that Palace captain Marc Guehi, who was reported to have undergone a medical before the collapse of his deadline day move to Liverpool in September, was credited with the assist for the winner.
Having spent lavishly in the summer, though, Slot will get little sympathy if Liverpool's first loss of the season is seen in hindsight as a harbinger of things to come.
(Reporting by Sam Tobin, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
