The Match, The Stat: Crystal Palace 2-1 Liverpool

This game saw more big chances than ever before. Some chances are bigger than others though.

Crystal Palace have equalled the longest unbeaten run in their history. All they had to do to achieve that was end Liverpool’s perfect start to 2025/26. For two theoretically immovable objects, it was far easier for the Eagles than it should have been.

Not that we should underestimate just how good Oliver Glasner’s side are. Palace sit eighth in Opta’s team ranking of clubs in world football. The next match up the difficulty ladder from a trip to Selhurst Park is going to the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium; would you expect the Reds to win there?

Some have called it Liverpool’s worst performance under Arne Slot. Due to the chances they created, that seems a stretch. Only once has the away team mustered a higher non-penalty goals tally at Selhurst Park in the Glasner era. To do that when behind from Palace’s first shot through to the Reds’ final goal attempt isn’t nothing. If there is a shred of positivity to be taken here, it is this.

Nonetheless, the opening 45 minutes might have been the worst half of the head coach’s reign. Opta’s Michael Reid has written that the Eagles’ xG tally of 2.07 before the break is the second highest on record (since 2012) in the first half of a Liverpool league game. Slot’s experiment with starting Florian Wirtz on the left - "to overload the midfield” in his words - did not pay off.

With Palace potent at first then Liverpool roaring back in the second half, the shot count headed off the scale. This was the first of the 2,720 Premier League games since the summer of 2018 in which both sides had at least six Opta-defined big chances. Having only conceded one across a four match spell against Arsenal, Burnley, Atlético Madrid and Everton, it was a spectacular defensive collapse from the Reds.

While Palace edged the big chance count, they only did so by one. Some chances are bigger than others, though, as we shall see. The frustration for Slot will be that many of the home side’s best moments did not requite incisive play, just Liverpool mistakes. There’s only one place to start: Ibrahima Konaté.