LIVERPOOL: Liverpool’s Premier League title challenge suffered a potentially fatal blow as Crystal Palace won 1-0 at Anfield on Sunday. A first home league defeat in 29 games for the Reds leaves Jurgen Klopp’s men two points behind Manchester City and level with Arsenal, who can go top with victory over Aston Villa later on Sunday.

Eberechi Eze’s early goal handed the Eagles a vital win in their battle for survival as they move eight points clear of the drop zone. However, Liverpool’s final season under Klopp is unravelling. The League Cup winners were on course for a quadruple just a few weeks ago.

But after crashing out of the FA Cup to Manchester United, Liverpool succumbed to a first home defeat in any competition for 14 months when Atalanta stormed Anfield on Thursday to take a 3-0 first leg lead in their Europa League quarter-final tie.

Klopp’s men have now won just three of their last eight games in all competitions and are showing clear signs of fatigue after already having played 51 games this season. Slow starts have been a recurring theme of Liverpool’s struggles of late and they were again forced to come from behind.

Alisson Becker made his long-awaited return in goal for the home side but he had no chance when Eze was left with a simple finish from Tyrick Mitchell’s cross. Palace were millimetres away from a second moments later when Andy Robertson produced a remarkable goalline clearance to deny Jean-Philippe Mateta after Virgil van Dijk’s slip let the French striker through.

Liverpool had to resort to set-pieces to put the Palace defence under pressure in the first half. Wataru Endo’s scuffed effort came back off the crossbar. Dean Henderson then produced a stunning save to prevent Luis Diaz levelling at the back post with an acrobatic effort.

Klopp reacted at half-time with the introduction of Dominik Szoboszlai and Trent Alexander-Arnold’s return after two months out quickly followed when Conor Bradley went down injured. Diogo Jota and Cody Gakpo were also sent on for the rescue mission from the bench.

Jota looked certain to equalise when picked out by Szoboszlai but the Portuguese forward’s finish hit Nathaniel Clyne on the line with the goal gaping. At the other end, Alisson showed why he is one of the world’s best goalkeepers with a remarkable stop to turn Mateta’s strike over from point-blank range.

Liverpool galloped immediately up the other end and Curtis Jones slotted wide with just Henderson to beat. Mohamed Salah had one final chance to at least snatch a point, but his goalbound effort was brilliantly blocked by Mitchell in stoppage time.

Unless Liverpool produce a stunning fightback against Atalanta in midweek, Klopp will have just two more games at Anfield before his momentous reign comes to an end. But what looked like it could be a glorious goodbye is now at danger of turning into a damp squib.

Meanwhile, Andreas Pereira scored twice as Fulham won 2-0 away to West Ham in the Premier League on Sunday to inflict fresh damage on their London rivals’ hopes of European football.

This defeat for West Ham came hot on the heels of a 2-0 loss to Bundesliga leaders Bayer Leverkusen in the first leg of their Europa League quarter-final on Thursday, leaving them with a tough task in the return tie.

And Sunday’s reverse meant the Hammers missed the chance to go up to sixth in the Premier League and into contention for a European place next season. For Fulham, having won the reverse fixture 5-0 at Craven Cottage in December, victory gave them a first league double over West Ham since 1966.

West Ham should have gone ahead in the opening moments when full-back Vladimir Coufal burst into the area and latched onto Lucas Paqueta’s ball over the top. Coufal’s initial effort was blocked by Bernd Leno and when the ball rebounded to Michail Antonio, the striker blazed over from eight yards.

West Ham looked the more threatening side early on, but it was Fulham who opened the scoring in the ninth minute with their first attack of the game. The Hammers’ Konstantinos Mavropanos tried to bring down a deep cross from Alex Iwobi but succeeded only in gifting the ball to Pereira, who was given a free run by Nayef Aguerd.

That left the Brazilian with the simple task of taking the ball past Hammers keeper Lukasz Fabianski and shooting into an empty net. In the second half, Fabianski did well to tip Alex Iwobi’s shot wide but he could do nothing to stop Pereira doubling Fulham’s lead in the 72nd minute.

Paqueta was dispossessed in midfield by Joao Palhinha and Pereira laid the ball off to Rodrigo Muniz. He played in Iwobi, and his cross found Pereira, who made no mistake with a simple finish. Defeat for West Ham was made worse when teenage substitute George Earthy was carried off on a stretcher after suffering a serious head injury in a collision with team-mate Edson Alvarez, just two minutes into his Premier League debut. — AFP