Visiting Selhurst Park is always a daunting task. It has been a fixture littered with drama, agony and elation for Liverpool down the years and, under the lights on Monday evening, similar fireworks are expected.
The task of leaving London with all three points is certainly made more difficult by the timing of the fixture. So early into a new season, and with Crystal Palace coming off the back of an impressive win over newly promoted Fulham, Liverpool will know they have to be at their best from the first minute.
Crystal Palace will no doubt be a threat going forward, boasting the highly regarded Wilfried Zaha, and powerful former reds Striker Christian Benteke as a dangerous duo up front. Joe Gomez and Virgil Van Dijk are set to be the men tasked with stopping Zaha and co, but the former could be in for a tough night given his lack of big game experience in the role.
Recent history is on the side of the visitors, with Liverpool winning on their last three visits to Selhurst Park, most notably last term courtesy of a late Mo Salah strike. But dig a little bit deeper into the archives and it’s not long before you stumble across the 13/14 season fixture, where a second-half Dwight Gayle inspired comeback severely dented Liverpool’s title hopes that year.
This time around, the game comes far too early in the calendar to derail Liverpool’s title aspirations, but if the reds are to go all the way this season it is surely fixtures like this where their credentials will be most put to the test.
Here are a selection of the key duels that could go a long way to deciding the result of Monday nights clash.
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