Jota pushes leaders Liverpool past Palace as Alisson exits injured | Premier League

Liverpool is a club that thrives on emotions. There's no shame in that. What else is football for other than the swelling of emotions? But if it was love at first sight with Jürgen Klopp, when will the faithful fall in love with Arne Slot? He had a great start to the season and was top of the league when Arsenal and Manchester City ran away. He could hardly have done a better job. Too cool for school? Possibly. A remnant of the final days of the Klopp romance that ended so bittersweet? Almost certainly.

Slot himself is happy to stay cool and distant. “Nine out of nine wins would have been brilliant,” he grumbled before kick-off. There will be no pogo on the sidelines, no bearish screams, even if he can be demonstrative in the technical area.

After the improvements Palace made last season under Oliver Glasner, it has been a difficult season so far. They started as one of five clubs that had yet to record a win. The wait continues, a decline that has seen Eberechi Eze and Adam Wharton demoted from England duties. Michael Olise will be sorely missed. Without his accomplice, Eze finds it much harder to get somewhere. Wharton, still only 20, struggles with his workload. There were only fleeting signs of the player he was looking for in the spring, but he still played a role in a move that might have seen Palace take the lead in the first minute. Wharton played in Ismaïla Sarr, only for Eddie Nketiah to trigger the offside trap.

Slot's selection was a reshuffling of the legacy Klopp left behind and it paid off with his team's winning goal in the ninth minute. Kostas Tsimikas stepped in for Andy Robertson, who hasn't been quite himself lately, and the Greek left-back's lovely ball moved Cody Gakpo into the wing role he had made his name with at PSV, replacing Diogo Jota. Liverpool's best finisher got ahead of Trevoh Chalobah, the Palace debutant, to score. Three simple decisions that each pay off.

There was still bad news for Glasner. Daniel Muñoz, the full-back whose arrival in January helped stabilize the team, limped off the pitch. Palace spent much of the first half sitting deep while Liverpool searched for a second half, playing the patient alien during the ecstatic romance of the Klopp era. As several corners piled up, Liverpool's players turned to Aaron Briggs, the set-piece coach, for help. Virgil van Dijk headed the ball towards the end of the first period, in which Selhurst Park was appeased by Liverpool's dominance.

Ryan Gravenberch, converted to midfielder, is the most obvious renewal under Slot, but until some desperate – and effective – defenders appeared in the closing stages, the rest shows an organization often abandoned by the previous incumbent.

The slot strategy in the second half seemed to be to finish the game, sit deep and apply pressure to trigger a counterattack. Where he may have lost out with Liverpool fans so far is his dispassionate pragmatism. Glasner moved on, Wharton was replaced by Will Hughes and Jean-Philippe Mateta joined the attack. The Frenchman immediately set up Nketiah for a pin-sharp strike, which a sprawling Alisson saved well as Palace finally began to simmer.

Despite it. Jota should have quit the competition. Again on Briggs' instruction, Trent Alexander-Arnold placed a free kick at his head, but the header headed terribly wide. Would Liverpool regret this? Or finish the job? A Gakpo dribble set up half-time substitute Dominik Szoboszlai for a shot that hit Henderson's stomach. Next, Eze forced a save from Alisson, who saved the resulting corner. That was the Brazilian's last action. The goalkeeper left injured and was replaced by Vítzslav Jaros, the Czech played his first game in Liverpool.

Slot's anger began to boil on the sidelines as his team struggled to clear their lines. As Eze, who now found space, galloped towards the goal, Jaros' first test came. He parried well and held the ball to his chest as Eze couldn't find enough purchase. Liverpool could complete their win and continue their exemplary start. Even if the thrill of the hunt is no longer as great as it was under Klopp, their chances of success are just as real as they were in the wild and crazy years.