Jurgen Klopp was a relieved man as Liverpool left Selhurst Park with a 2-1 win against Crystal Palace on Saturday.
The Premier League leaders were pegged back late on by Wilfried Zaha and it looked like they would draw, but Roberto Firmino scored a late winner and thanks to a poor finish from Zaha in stoppage time they secured a 12th win in their first 13 Premier League games of the season.
Speaking after the game, Klopp was happy his team came up with the goods and dug deep. But he admitted they had got away with one.
“I’m fine with it. When you finish the game on the up then it is okay. They [Crystal Palace] worked hard, I can only imagine what Roy Hodgson is feeling like because they would have deserved a point today. But we won the game and it was deserved today as well,” Klopp said. “We had today to fight with different things. We weren’t compact enough. Our distances between the full backs and midfielders, the half spaces, were too big. The set pieces were really dangerous and gave them the time to go there. It was a tough job to do today and at the end of the day I am happy with the result and big parts of the performances as well.”
Mohamed Salah didn’t feature as he has only just returned from injury, as Klopp said he will have to continue to nurse the Egyptian winger back into the team. Sadio Mane stepped up to lead Liverpool and Roberto Firmino bagged the winner as the ball fell perfectly to him in the box after a scrappy effort from Virgil van Dijk, as Liverpool found a way in attack.
At the other end of the pitch, Liverpool’s defense looked shaky and was saved by VAR as it ruled out James Tomkins’ first half goal for a foul by Jordan Ayew on Dejan Lovren despite the Liverpool defender going down easily.
Sadio Mane popped up with another goal to put Liverpool ahead and his display was a major positive, but overall this was another game where Liverpool didn’t play to their best but ground out a win.
They sit eight points clear atop the Premier League table and they now things are going their way right now.
Klopp’s face at the final whistle said it all, as Liverpool roll on.