Crystal Palace vs Liverpool Preview

Liverpool may bitterly rue their home defeat to Chelsea for quite some time, as the Reds are now reliant on results elsewhere if they are to win their first top flight title in quarter of a century. But first things first...they must defeat Crystal Palace here if they are to retain realistic hopes of winning this season’s Premier League.

Perhaps Liverpool were a little naive tactically in their previous match. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but considering that they only needed a point to retain control over their own destiny in the title race, it would have seemed prudent to take a more cautious approach and simply ensure that they didn’t lose the game. As it turned out, there seemed to be an assumption that because they’ve been playing irresistible attacking football and smashing all opponents that they were going to blow Chelsea away, and put themselves in a virtually unassailable position in the table. This turned out to be a rather dangerous prognosis.

Looking back at the game, it seems a complete oddity to me that Luis Suarez was applauding the Chelsea goalkeeper sarcastically for time wasting after 30 minutes when the score was 0-0. A goalless draw wouldn’t have been a bad draw for Liverpool, and it would have meant that two wins would give them the title. It would also have completely eliminated Chelsea from the title race. I can’t help thinking that the defeat was ultimately a slightly hubristic one.

But having lost that game, Liverpool must go into this one with a supremely positive attitude. A draw will be completely useless to them, and they must replicate some of their outstanding attacking displays of recent weeks.

Although Crystal Palace in truth have little to play for, their form has been so good under Tony Pulis that they are not likely to be a pushover. Pulis is a supreme motivator of teams as well, so this could be a tricky afternoon for the Reds. Indeed, before Liverpool lost at home to Chelsea, many viewed this game as a potential banana skin.

No such attitude can be accepted from Liverpool now, as they simply must win. So I expect them to play a very aggressive game in this particular fixture, in order to chase the sort of early goals that got them a win at Norwich in their previous away day. Of course, Palace are a considerably more proficient team than the Canaries at the moment, but Manchester City showed by beating them 2-0 on their home turf last time out that it is possible to get at the Palace defence.

Thus, I expect to see Liverpool reunited Daniel Sturridge and Luis Suarez up front and really go for broke from the first whistle. In terms of bets, I can see this one having a lot of goals in it, purely because Liverpool are tough to stop when they’re on the game, yet leave lots of space at the back. The good news for Reds fans is I think this will be a high scoring away win, with Liverpool enhancing the best away record in the Premier League.

Safe Bets – Over 2.5 goals, Liverpool win
Value Bet – Crystal Palace 1 – 3 Liverpool

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01/05/2014     © Frixo 2026