Arne Slot hails Crystal Palace playing style after Eagles end Reds unbeaten start to season

Liverpool manager Arne Slot hailed Crystal Palace’s playing style after the Eagles ended the Reds’ unbeaten start to the season with a last-gasp 2-1 win at Selhurst Park.

Substitute Eddie Nketiah bagged a 97th-minute winner after Federico Chiesa had levelled following an early Ismaila Sarr goal to extend Palace’s own unbeaten run to 18 matches and lift Oliver Glasner’s men up to second in the Premier League table.

Despite defeat, Slot’s side will remain top of the pile irrespective of results elsewhere this weekend, and the Liverpool boss was quick to highlight the strengths of their South London opponents.

“[It was a] very difficult first half for us. They [Palace] did really well and we were lucky it was only 1-0. The second half was the opposite,” said Slot.

“Set-pieces were one of our bigger strengths last season, but we conceded two at Newcastle and two today so we need to do better. This league is more and more and more about set-pieces.

“Their style fits really well with the players they have – low block, fast players and an excellent target man on the counter-attack – and we had a lot of problems with that in the first half.”

Liverpool are back in action in just three days’ time when they make the trip to Istanbul to play Galatasaray at the notoriously intimidating Rams Park in the Champions League on Tuesday.

Palace are also on the road in European action next week, taking on Dynamo Kyiv at the Lublin Arena in Poland in the Conference League on Thursday.