The sun shone, Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz made an impression on a Liverpool victory, Freddie Woodman seized his moment as third-choice goalkeeper and Arne Slot’s team went fourth by lifting the curse of Crystal Palace. This season being what it is for the champions, though, a dark cloud had to appear.
Mohamed Salah limped out of Liverpool’s third consecutive Premier League win and potentially out of his final season at Anfield with a hamstring injury. That was the impression given as the Liverpool great applauded all four sides of the ground before heading straight down the tunnel.
“We don’t know,” said Slot on the extent of the injury when asked about the possibility that Salah had played his final game for the club. “But we do know the season is over in four or five weeks so that’s not a lot of games. We have to see if he can return to play but Mo has taken such good care of his body that he needs the minimum time to recover from an injury. Let’s hope for the best.”
Another cloud came in the form of more protests against Liverpool’s decision to increase ticket prices for the next three seasons. “You greedy bastards, enough is enough,” reverberated around Anfield as the vast majority of fans showed yellow cards to Liverpool owner, Fenway Sports Group. But for Slot, another step closer to Champions League qualification courtesy of a first win in four meetings with Palace this season brightened the outlook.
