Arne Slot’s gamble fails miserably as Crystal Palace do the three-peat over Liverpool

It is not a crisis to be eliminated from the Carabao Cup by this excellent Crystal Palace side. Not with 10 changes, with two debutants starting, three teenagers beginning the game, with a creche on the bench. Not even when it was Arne Slot ’s heaviest defeat as Liverpool manager.

But for him and them, a second successive Anfield beating nevertheless compounded the wider sense that the wheels have fallen off, suddenly and stunningly. Liverpool have lost six of their last seven matches, and each of their last six in England. It is the sort of run which would have felt inconceivable when they went to Selhurst Park little more than a month ago, boasting a 100 percent record in both the Premier and the Champions League. In a rematch, Palace reinforced the sense they are Liverpool’s bogey side, and Ismaila Sarr their bogey player.

Oliver Glasner ’s overachievers have now chalked up a hat-trick, overcoming Liverpool in the Community Shield, the Premier League and now the Carabao Cup . Sarr has scored in each, a brace taking his tally to four goals against Liverpool this season. They will enter November with the Senegalese winger contributing four times as many goals in their matches as Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz have between them. Suffice to say, this was not what Liverpool imagined when they committed nine-figure sums to buying each.

And if the two record signings were among a host of absentees, if there were reasons to priortise a week featuring Aston Villa, Real Madrid and Manchester City, Slot gambled and lost. His second-string side simply emulated their supposed superiors. Sarr’s four-minute double ensured Liverpool will not reach a fourth final in five seasons in this competition. Instead, Palace, who waited almost 120 years for a major trophy, move a step closer to a third.

Perhaps it was a compliment to Glasner that, for the first time in his reign, Slot started with a back three. But copying the Austrian’s 3-4-3 formation does not equate to mastering it like the Palace manager. Slot could change the personnel and the system but not Liverpool’s habit of going behind. They have now conceded first in seven consecutive matches.

Slot had a lone specialist centre-back in that back three and Joe Gomez had an unfortunate role in both goals. The ball bounced off him for Sarr to dispatch a half-volley past Freddie Woodman for the opener. Then Gomez managed to vacate the centre of the penalty area when Yeremy Pino found Sarr and he lifted a shot into the roof of the net. The Senegalese was on Liverpool’s radar a few years ago. One who got away has come to have a considerable influence on them.

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Ismaila Sarr scored his third of the season against Liverpool (Peter Byrne/PA Wire)

The classy Pino was to add a late third, but Sarr’s clinical double had long since decided the game and made it irrelevant that Rio Ngumoha sparkled with his skill in the initial exchanges, while Federico Chiesa tested Walter Benitez. For each, it was a rare outing.

Woodman, the son of Palace’s former goalkeeping coach and the godson of their ex-captain, Gareth Southgate, and Kieran Morrison made their debuts. Calvin Ramsay made just his second start, Ngumoha his third, Trey Nyoni his fourth and the rather more experienced Chiesa his fifth.

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Freddie Woodman shipped three on his debut for Liverpool (AP)

But whereas Glasner afforded himself options by naming Jean-Philippe Mateta on the bench, Slot left himself with nothing in the reserve. Liverpool’s substitutes had nine previous first-team appearances for the club; the oldest among them was 21. Slot had spoken of this as a competition for Liverpool’s young players but they have tended to be accompanied by experience when they have prospered. The Dutchman seemed to raise the white flag when taking off the stand-in skipper Andy Robertson and Alexis Mac Allister. Anfield has witnessed many a comeback over the years and Slot’s Liverpool have scored plenty of late goals this season, but this was an admission there would be no sequel.

Instead, there was an ignominious double for the 18-year-old defender Amara Nallo. Sent off on his only previous Liverpool appearance, against PSV Eindhoven in January, for a foul as the last man, he conjured a repeat. He tugged back Justin Devenny, who had been released by Mateta. The decision was so obvious referee Craig Pawson could not show mercy. Nallo’s first-team career has now lasted 16 minutes and brought two red cards.

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Amara Nallo received his second red card in as many senior substitute appearances (AP)

It was scarcely a better night for his manager. Slot was drenched and taunted, with a chorus of “sacked in the morning” coming from the exuberant Eagles in the corner of Anfield. Given Palace’s record, perhaps they ought to have asked instead if they could play Liverpool every week.

And now Liverpool will enter a defining week wondering if six defeats in swift succession could become nine. The last match they won in England was in the Carabao Cup . They will not win it, because now they are not even in it.