Liverpool’s nightmare at home

Crystal Palace’s 1-0 victory at Anfield on Sunday dealt a possibly catastrophic blow to Liverpool’s Premier League championship hopes.

three-way competition for the title

Following their first home league loss in 29 games, Jurgen Klopp’s team now sits two points behind Manchester City and equal with Arsenal, who can take the lead if they beat Aston Villa later on Sunday.

With an early goal from Eberechi Eze, the Eagles gained a crucial victory in their struggle to survive and moved eight points clear of the drop zone. But Klopp’s last season at Liverpool is falling apart. Only a few weeks ago, the League Cup champions were headed for a quadruple. However, after their humiliating loss to Manchester United in the FA Cup, Liverpool suffered their first home loss in a tournament for 14 months on Thursday as Atalanta overpowered Anfield to grab a 3-0 first-leg lead in their Europa League quarterfinal match.

Is fatigue the cause?
With 51 games played so far this season, Klopp’s team has only won three of their past eight games in all competitions, and they are obviously tired.

Liverpool’s problems lately have often included slow starts, and they had to rally from behind once again.

Alisson Becker made his much anticipated return to the home team’s goal, but he was unable to stop Eze from scoring from Tyrick Mitchell’s cross.

Shortly after Virgil van Dijk’s error allowed the French striker to go through, Andy Robertson made an incredible goalline clearance to thwart Jean-Philippe Mateta, and Palace came dangerously close to scoring again.