Everton spare Liverpool blushes but not Wirtz’s as huge Crystal Palace weakness laid bare

For the vast majority of this game, while holding a lead over Everton which would have seen Crystal Palace move above Liverpool into second place in the Premier League, we wondered whether there was any metric with which to disprove what would have been the table-based reality of Oliver Glasner’s side being a superior football team to the reigning champions. Everton helped uncover a very clear one.

It was Palace’s victory over the Reds last weekend which ushered in the mini-crisis which has seen Slot’s men lose to Galatasaray and Chelsea since and cede the title favourites badge to Arsenal.

READ MORE: 16 Conclusions on Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool: ‘Mini crisis’, Slot, Maresca, Mac Allister, Estevao, Jota

Two wins in two for Palace over Liverpool this season  – including the Community Shield curtain-raiser – provides the other quantifiable measure of their supremacy. And with at least two further meetings to come this term, as the pair do battle again at the end of this month in the League Cup, before what could be a fight for Champions League qualification in late-April, there isn’t much about the collective or individual performances of the two sides right now to suggest Palace won’t once again be fancied.

With Liverpool in the midst of something of an identity crisis while £400m-worth of summer signings upset their previously sturdy apple cart, it’s been business as usual for Glasner’s Palace, who would have stretched their unbeaten run to 20 games had it not been for Jack Grealish’s stoppage-time winner, with Eberechi Eze’s exit doing little to halt their progress.

The performance of his replacement, Yeremy Pino, stood in stark contrast to that of Florian Wirtz for Liverpool against Chelsea.

After one masterful flick to set up Mohamed Salah early in the second half, Wirtz appeared to spend the rest of the game marking Moises Caicedo, and doing it poorly. Pino meanwhile has that particularly useful No.10 knack of always finding himself in space, and typically makes the right decisions when given the time on the ball that that positional awareness allows.

He was excellent, in the first half in particular, dribbling and drifting past challenges, and keeping or releasing the ball as required.

The 22-year-old had a big hand in Palace’s goal, controlling the ball expertly with his back to goal before feeding Ismaila Sarr, who played in the on-rushing Daniel Muñoz from right wing-back to fire the ball through Jordan Pickford, and deserved an assist for a brilliant through ball to Ismaila Sarr, who made a mess of going round Dean Henderson before Jean-Philippe Mateta made an even bigger mess of the resulting chance.

Glasner’s side really should have been clear of Everton having dominated the home side for a good hour at the Hill Dickinson Stadium, but while David Moyes’ substitutions made a positive difference, with Carlos Alcarez a significant improvement on Tyler Dibling and Beto offering a far greater outlet than Thierno Barry, Glasner’s call to make just one – Eddie Nketiah for Mateta – before the 82nd minute illustrates the huge difference between them and Liverpool.

The starting XI can compete with the very best; you could make a case for several players – Pino, Adam Wharton, Marc Guehi, both full-backs, even Mateta – getting in the Liverpool team, but the strength in depth just isn’t there. And with the Europa League to contend with as well this season, the big concern for Palace will be their ability to stay the course, both in the season as a whole and in individual games.

Because they didn’t manage it here. Iliman Ndiaye scored from the spot after Maxence Lacroix’s daft sliding challenge on Tim Iroegbunam, and it was Ndiaye’s cross which was key to the late winner. Beto’s header was blocked on the line before Grealish amusingly managed to score without shooting after a week in which his lack of efforts on goal have been cited as a possible reason for his England snub, as he tackled the ball into the roof of the net.

Glasner will be as frustrated by his lack of options to alter the momentum of the game as much as the defeat itself. And while we can perhaps question why he left it so late to make changes, with all due respect, Justin Devenny, Christantus Uche and Jefferson Lerma being those to enter the fray offers justification for that reticence, while also providing a very clear reason as to why they’re not actually better than Liverpool. Shame.