Arne Slot publicly calls out one Liverpool player for error which led to Crystal Palace winner

Arne Slot blamed Jeremie Frimpong for Crystal Palace's dramatic last-gasp winner which saw Liverpool lose their unbeaten start in the Premier League. Eddie Nketiah smashed in a winner for Palace in the 97th minute at Selhurst Park as Liverpool's five-game winning streak in the league came to an end.

Palace were deserving winners, having dominated the opening stages and gone ahead through Ismaila Sarr's goal from a corner. Alisson kept Liverpool in the game with some stunning saves and they appeared to have salvaged a point when Federico Chiesa fired in as VAR cleared Mohamed Salah of a potential handball.

But Palace grabbed the three points from a long throw-in as Liverpool failed to deal with Will Hughes' header back into the mixer. Nketiah controlled the ball well before firing through Alisson to send the home crowd wild.

Frimpong came on in the 74th minute to replace Ibrahima Konate and got stuck under the ball as it was inadvertently glanced on by fellow substitute Curtis Jones. He lost Nketiah who took advantage of the space to blast through Alisson.

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“We can only blame ourselves for defending the way we did,” said Slot before hinting at Frimpong's mistake. “One of our players ran out because he wanted to play a counter-attack, which was of no use because time was up, so it was only about defending.

“One player was too offensively minded in that moment, which led to them scoring the winner and us losing the game.”

Liverpool had benefited from plenty of late goals of their own this season but were on the receiving end on Saturday. “It was a disappointing first half and disappointing end to game,” added Slot.

“Credit to Palace – with the Community Shield it’s not the first time we’ve lost to them. They deserved to be two or three up in the first half. The second half was much better from us, we created chances which not many teams do here.

“It took us a while to score a goal – and when we did, to concede another set-piece goal is just as disappointing as the first half. If one team deserved to win today it was Palace.”

Asked about conceding both goals from set pieces, after Sarr's opener came from a corner, Slot added: “If you want to compete and want to be right up there you need a very positive balance in set pieces. That is what I always say, for years, and in this league that is probably even more the situation. That was one of our biggest strengths last season.

"We hardly conceded a set piece. Now against Newcastle we conceded two and today we conceded two so that is something we need to do better. But this league is more and more about set pieces.

"We had to defend a lot of them as well and the margins are small. One of our players in the last minute runs forward to maybe try to counter attack for a second goal but in that area the ball falls for a Crystal Palace player who scores.”

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