da pinnacle： There’s a growing feeling that 2016/17 may just be Liverpool’s year. The Reds have made a stunning start to the Premier league campaign despite a difficult set of fixtures, and it could be said that recent 2-1 victories over Swansea and West Brom showed their title credentials to a greater extent than batterings of Leicester and Arsenal.
da supremo： Jurgen Klopp’s men are unbeaten since a freak slip-up at Burnley on the second weekend of the season, but there may be a few squeaky bums as Crystal Palace loom large on the horizon.
The Eagles are Liverpool’s next opponents on Saturday evening and the travelling Merseysiders head into the tie knowing that favours from West Brom and Sunderland against Manchester City and Arsenal respectively will see them end gameweek 10 as the division’s top dogs – so long as they can take three points from Alan Pardew’s men.
Although Liverpool are clear favourites for their next trip to the capital, we at FFC Towers wouldn’t be overly surprised to see a Palace win. A bold claim perhaps, but we have our reasons.
Crosses to bear…
No team in the Premier League has put in more crosses (264) than Crystal Palace this season. Granted, Liverpool have conceded the fewest chances from open play in the division and haven’t seen their goalkeeper beaten from a non-set-piece situation since mid-September, but the sheer weight of balls into the area will test Joel Matip and Dejan Loven and ask questions of James Milner and Nathaniel Clyne alongside them.
Speaking without numbers, it’s clear that Liverpool are not the greatest side when it comes to dealing with balls being slung into their 18-yard box, and with the Eagles perfectly set-up for such a style of play, it’s going to be a long evening in the south of London for Klopp and his men.
The ghosts of visits past…
Selhurst Park will, perhaps, always be remembered among Kopites for that evening the wheels of their 2013/14 title challenge fell off and burst into flames.
Needing to win by nine clear goals to have any chance of overcoming Manchester City’s superior goal difference, the Reds raced into a three-goal lead, but as they pushed and pushed to get more in their plus column, the Eagles swooped in and notched three in the last 15 minutes. The rest, as they say, is history.
The following season, Brendan Rodgers’ side once again lost in league action at Selhurst Park, going down 3-1 during the bleakest period of the Northern Irishman’s reign.
Granted, Liverpool have won at the home of their red and blue-clad enemies twice on the spin since then – once in the FA Cup – but there will always be nerves among supporters and some players at the sheer mention of the ground.
The Benteke factor
Football just loves a narrative, and it would be no surprise to see Christian Benteke boldly stick it to the team that he was so cruelly dumped by over the summer. The Belgian was quickly deemed surplus to requirements by Klopp, so he will have plenty of fire raging in his belly on Saturday as he looks to show the German just what he passed up on.
There is more to back this up than pure speculation, too, with Benteke having scored four goals in just five league outings against Liverpool during his time at Aston Villa. Much has changed since those days, but the omens don’t appear all that positive for Klopp.