Liverpool, rampaging on a goalscoring spree with 27 goals in 9 matches, started this Remembrance Day match at Anfield against Brighton in a similar fashion as captain Jordan Henderson curled one past an awestruck Sanchez in the 4th minute itself after a brilliant assist from Mohamed Salah who received a precision perfect diagonal from Van Djik.
The shot from 20 yards marked Henderson’s first Premier League goal in over a year.
The Reds struck again in the 24th minute as Oxlade-Chamberlain made space and curled an excellent pass to Sadio Mane who made no mistake heading it past Sanchez.
Just before halftime, Brighton returned the favour to the 20-yarder from Henderson after Enock Mwepu curled a magnificent 25-yarder over the head of Alisson as the Brazillian jumped in vain.
The 2nd half began as the Brighton midfield tightened the screw and quietened the Anfield crowd. The crowd were in for a bigger shock when the ball whizzed past the Liverpool players from Sanchez to Cucurella to Lallana to Trossard before the Seagulls’ second goal. The pace on the ball did the trick and in the blink of an eye, Trossard had levelled for Brighton.
The 2nd half was undoubtedly Brighton’s half as the team pressed aggressively and asked persistent questions to the Liverpool defence who did well to deny them another goal.
The second half also provided some loose chances to the men in Red, but they were comfortably dealt with by the Brighton defence and Sanchez without troubling the scorekeepers.
Liverpool began losing their mojo towards the end of stoppage time as the frustration tempted them into conceding the first yellow card of the match in form of Minamino.
Elsewhere, the defending champions Manchester City had a forgettable home game at the Etihad Stadium as Crystal Palace pulled out a Houdini Act by managing to get the better of Pep Guardiola’s men on his 200th match as manager.
Wilfried Zaha was the architect in chief of the victory as he swapped passes with Conor Gallagher and booted the ball past Ederson to put Crystal Palace ahead in the 6th minute.
After the goal, City began to press aggressively but Crystal Palace were also relentless and never missed the opportunity to run forward with the ball into the opposition half.
City created a couple of chances in the first half but Crystal Palace defended well and launched counterattacks when deemed fit. The pressure continued to build on City and to make matters worse for them at the stroke of halftime, they were reduced to 10 men as Laporte made a cynical challenge on Zaha.
In the 2nd half, Zaha netted a ball from Ayew in the 59th minute but was ruled offside. Within a minute, Foden set up a beautiful ball for Jesus who took the shot from close range and levelled for City, but as luck would have it, the goal was ruled offside by VAR.
The Cityzens made a couple of penalty box infiltrations and shouted twice for a penalty in the last quarter. But this was not City’s day.
Gallagher wrapped things up for Crystal Palace in the 88th minute by drilling a ball from Zaha into the net, bamboozling Ederson.
