Liverpool will need to be at their "absolute best" in order to beat Crystal Palace in Saturday lunchtime's Premier League clash between the two sides, Liverpool expert David Lynch has told Sports Mole.
Arne Slot's men will go into the contest at Selhurst Park as heavy favourites to come away with all three points, a status backed up by the Premier League table, which sees Liverpool leading the way after six games, while Palace sit in the relegation zone without a win to their name yet this season.
It is the Eagles' second-worst start to a campaign over the last 12 years, whereas Slot has become the first Liverpool manager to win eight of his first nine games in charge of the club, most recently beating Bologna in the Champions League on Wednesday night.
Palace's slow start to this season is in stark contrast to their strong end to 2023-24, which included a 1-0 triumph over Liverpool at Anfield in April, and Lynch believes that they are struggling following the exits of Michael Olise and Joachim Andersen during the summer.
"You would hope [it would be a routine win] on the basis of form, absolutely. There's two sides to that in that Palace will be even more determined to try and get one over on Liverpool. Selhurst Park has typically been a tricky place for Liverpool to go; they've had a lot of good results there, but so many late winners," Lynch told Sports Mole.
"I've been at Selhurst Park down the years and seen Liverpool win it late on countless occasions, which just shows you, they've always been in the game there most of the time, and so that's a factor. And [Oliver] Glasner did show last season at Anfield, that he can set a team up to frustrate Liverpool and make it difficult.
"I think they are really hurting at the moment from losing Olise and Andersen, two really key players that they've lost, and maybe that's been a big part of it, but I think he's a good manager, and he's still got an awful lot of good players, so they will get it right at some point."
Palace are in a "false position"
Liverpool have won eight of their last nine Premier League visits to Selhurst Park and have not lost away to Palace in almost a decade.
However, the Eagles have only lost two of their last 10 home league games stretching back to last season, hinting that Liverpool could be in for a more difficult match than the league table suggests.
Victory would ensure that Slot's side go into the second international break of the season looking down on the rest of the league, though, marking an encouraging start to life after Jurgen Klopp for the 19-time English champions.
"Liverpool are going to have to still be at their absolute best to get the points here, and it could be a similar game to Wolves in that [Palace] are in a kind of false position," Lynch told Sports Mole.
"It will be a close one, but if Liverpool can win that one and bounce into this next international break, still top of the league, I think that's better than than most people would have expected.
"And it's a really good platform to go from in terms of when these these tougher fixtures start to come up on the other side of the international break."
Liverpool's only loss this season was a shock 1-0 home defeat to Nottingham Forest last month, meaning that they have won all four of their away matches under Slot across all competitions so far.
However, their fixture list does get notably tougher after the upcoming international break; having not faced a single team currently placed higher than 10th in the Premier League table yet this season, eight of their next 10 games will come against current top-nine opposition.
Barney Corkhill
