Disputed Fabinho penalty seals win as Liverpool quash Crystal Palace revival

For a while it felt as if Liverpool were about to let another Premier League title slip from their grasp at Selhurst Park. Jurgen Klopp’s exhausted side looked as if they were playing on fumes. Nine of them had played a gruelling League Cup semi-final against Arsenal on Thursday night.

Two nights’ sleep, some ice packs, some light training, and then back on the bus. Crystal Palace were 2-1 down but well on top. Chances came and went.

But Liverpool held on. With a full 18 days until their next league fixture, they gave it one last push and even managed to burgle a third goal, a richly undeserved penalty converted by Fabinho to give them a little breathing space. Now they can rest up a little, recharge their batteries, welcome back Mo Salah and Sadio Mané from international duty. In the meantime, we still just about have a title race.

Liverpool were scrappy but decisive when it mattered. Virgil van Dijk and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain got the two crucial first-half goals. Jordan Henderson was magnificent in midfield. Curtis Jones never stopped. Trent Alexander-Arnold was beginning to puff even before the end of the first half, but in the dying minutes somehow still managed to produce the pass of the match, a devastating 60-yard diagonal ball from which Diogo Jota won the late penalty.

As for Palace, it was a familiar story: a nice performance, hampered by their irritating habit of finding themselves 2-0 down after half an hour.

Many of their problems appear to be structural: an absence of clear authority at the back (the superb Joachim Andersen aside) and that well-known weakness at set pieces. Palace are not a big team, and so when that physical disadvantage is compounded by individual errors and positional indiscipline, they