Nketiah's late winner downs Liverpool 2-1 to send Palace second

LONDON :Liverpool's perfect Premier League start came to a juddering halt at Crystal Palace on Saturday, with substitute Eddie Nketiah's last-gasp winner giving the Eagles a deserved win over the sub-par champions that ought to have been much easier.

Ismaila Sarr smashed in from close range, his third goal in his last three games against the Reds, after Liverpool failed to clear a contentious corner in the ninth minute.

Palace were rampant and could have been 4-0 up inside 25 minutes, with Liverpool indebted to a tame effort from Yeremy Pino and goalkeeper Alisson's superb saves from Daniel Munoz and Jean-Philippe Mateta to keep them in the contest.

Liverpool substitute Federico Chiesa's 87th-minute equaliser looked set to give the champions an absolute heist of a 1-1 draw, which felt harsh on Palace after the VAR cleared a possible handball by Mohamed Salah.

But Nketiah fired past Alisson at the death, almost a minute after the end of the six added on, with Palace surviving a tense VAR review to move up to second place with 12 points from six games as the only remaining unbeaten side in the league.

Liverpool's loss leaves them on 15 points from six games, still top of the table though Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal can both cut the gap to two points if they win their fixtures against Wolverhampton Wanderers and Newcastle United respectively.

SLOPPY LIVERPOOL NEARLY PUNISH PALACE

The Reds had not even trailed an opponent this season before Saturday, but without truly impressing and were repeatedly undone by a well-drilled Palace and their own sloppy errors.

Conor Bradley was at fault for giving the ball away in the build-up to Sarr's goal from a corner, though Liverpool argued Bradley had won a goal kick off Tyrick Mitchell.

Ibrah