Liverpool briefly extended their advantage at the top of the Premier League on Saturday lunchtime with a 1-0 win at Crystal Palace. Victories later that day for Arsenal and Manchester City now means Arne Slot’s side will spend the October international break as leaders, a point ahead of both, who recorded respective wins over Southampton and Fulham at home.
Diogo Jota’s early goal was enough to give the visitors the full points at Selhurst Park and it now means Slot has won nine of his first 10 games as head coach. The Reds return to action on October 20 at Anfield, when they entertain Chelsea.But you knew all of that, of course. What you might have missed, however, were a series of intriguing subplots on the day. Here, as ever, are the best of our ‘moments missed’ from the game itself.
There can’t be many players whose wrath you would want to incur less thanVirgil van Dijk. The Liverpool captain might have established himself as one of the coolest of cucumbers in the top flight but it’d take a brave man to get on the wrong side of the in-form centre-back.
So it probably wasn’t on Kostas Tsimikas’s to-do list on the day when it was revealed he would be stepping in for Andy Robertson at left-back. The Greek defender generally had a solid game at the back before his withdrawal, and he helped unlock Palace for the opening goal with a superb pass for Cody Gakpo to provide the assist to Jota.
Before that, though, Tsimikas was left in no doubt as to what he needed to do defensively when Van Dijk was forced to come across and block a cross from Daniel Munoz that the Reds skipper felt his colleague should have done a lot more to prevent. Tsimikas was told straight by Van Dijk, who was clearly unimpressed with his team-mate during the exchange.Rather you than us, Kostas. But all was happily forgiven moments later when the Reds took the lead.
Liverpool’s search for a set-piece coach is now on hold after Aaron Briggs took responsibility over the summer. Briggs, who joined from Wolfsburg, officially has the job title of ‘first-team individual development coach’ but he has also assumed control of what the Reds do at corners and free-kicks.
His work was credited with the recent 3-1 win at AC Milan, when Ibrahima Konate and Van Dijk scored from set pieces to cancel out Christian Pulisic’s opener prior to Dominik Szoboszlai’s third and Briggs could be seen dishing out for information at Selhurst Park also.
A Palace corner in the first half led to Alexis Mac Allister and Tsimikas immediately turning to the bench to catch Briggs’s eye for instructions on how to defend the delivery from the Eagles.
Briggs could be seen relaying the pertinent points and Liverpool defended the set-piece properly. It’s been a key element behind the excellent defensive record so far under Slot. Clearly, the new coach’s influence is growing by the week at Anfield.
