Crystal Palace 2-1 Liverpool: Eddie Nketiah nets 97th-minute winner to inflict first defeat of the season on Premier League champions as Eagles extend unbeaten run to 18 MATCHES

Try as they might, the Selhurst Park stewards were fighting a losing battle. Though they asked the locals to start heading for the exits, nobody was listening – nobody, really, could hear them.

All the party hits were being played – Glad All Over, Ain’t No Stopping Us Now, Tonight’s Gonna be a Good Night – and who could blame the DJ? 

He was capturing the mood of a remarkable afternoon when Crystal Palace did to Liverpool what Liverpool have been doing to teams all season.

Eddie Nketiah scored a 98th minute goal to inflict the league leaders first defeat of the campaign and provide the home side with the victory that extended their own unbeaten record to 17 games and showed why they are one of the most progressive teams in the business.

It was staggering drama, the kind that only football, really, can provide. How could Oliver Glasner go from feeling like a man who thought his wallet had been stolen only to find it a few moments later, not empty but stuffed to bursting point with £20 notes?

Glasner had been trying his best to put a brave face on seeing Liverpool plunder another late goal through Federico Chiesa, a finish that looked like it was going to provide a scratchy point, but this stadium – and these opponents – have a habit of being like Kryptonite for the visitors.

You would never have thought the night that is still recalled as ‘Crystanbul’ in May 2014, when Palace came back from three goals down to secure a draw that ended Liverpool’s title challenge, would be surpassed but the ringing in your ears told you that this, indeed, had gone beyond that night.

Arne Slot might have been raging at the end, given Nketiah pounced two minutes after the game should have finished – six minutes of additional time were posted. 

But, when he steps back from it all, he will have no trouble seeing Liverpool were dreadfully off colour.

It was always going to happen but, nonetheless, the manner in which Liverpool fell behind for the first time this season had Slot bouncing in fury. 

Some thought he was screeching at the match officials but his players were the only targets for his ire.

Quite how Ismalia Sarr found himself unmarked in the six-yard box was hard to fathom but it was indicative of their slovenly start and you can guarantee it will be the subject of video tutorials in the coming days.

This was always going to be a huge test against a well-drilled, highly-skilled and physically imposing team and Liverpool’s status as champions counted for nothing as a red-and-blue juggernaut threatened to flatten them.

Holding it all together was Marc Guehi, who would have got changed in the away dressing room had business between the two clubs not collapsed on September 1.

Liverpool’s loss, absolutely, has been Palace’s gain and the captain set the tone with an impeccable performance.

Will Liverpool regret not doing that deal in the summer? Only time will tell. What obvious, though, was the discomfort Ibrahima Konate had throughout, almost from the first whistle he looked jittery and found the imposing Jean-Philippe Mateta bullying him regularly.

Glasner has enthusiasm like a trail of gunpowder, it fizzes and crackles and gets an explosive reaction in the stands, and Liverpool should really have had a hole blown in their ambitions in a remarkably one-sided opening 45 minutes.

Yes, Ryan Gravenberch struck a post via Dean Henderson’s fingertips but everything else was about Palacae being thwarted by a yellow wall: Alisson saving from Daniel Muñoz, Alisson denying Yeremy Pino, Alisson thwarting Mateta.

Perhaps it’s down to familiarity but the brilliance of Liverpool’s goalkeeper, who has been at Anfield since 2018, goes unheralded. 

So put it another way. Without him, the trophies they have won don’t arrive and without him this game ends at 30 minutes.

It would have ended deep in added-time at the end of the first period but Mateta was unlucky to see a curling drive from 20 yards, after playing a one-two with that scurrying menace Adam Wharton, crunch against the post. So good was the move, Glasner looked like he might celebrate anyway.

Slot, a few yards away, had decamped to his seat, quietly stewing on it all. 

He doesn’t accept second best and while he wouldn’t be the kind of man who would strip paint off the walls with volcanic fury, you knew these shortcomings were going to be starkly pointed out.

Improvement would arrive in the second period but nowhere near at the level Slot wanted. Still, it seemed like he had been rescued when Chiesa, with his infectious attitude, pounced in the 87th minute.

The end of the drama? Not a bit of it. Palace responded brilliantly and as the time ticked on, a long throw bounced around Liverpool’s area and Nketiah showed tremendous composure to finish under Alisson’s flailing legs. Football, as a great manager once said. Bloody hell.