Crystal Palace 0-7
by Gene Sylvester

NOT many teams will have the misfortune of playing a league game against the team sitting on top of the Premier League table two consecutive weeks running, but having taken on Spurs last week who were sitting pretty at the Premier league summit, Roy Hodgson’s men this time faced the current champions and league leaders Liverpool at Selhurst Park.

Jose Mourinho, whose Spurs team surrendered top spot to the boys from Merseyside in midweek after their own defeat to Liverpool at Anfield, may have hoped for a similar Palace performance that greeted his own team at Selhurst last week, but Jurgen Klopp’s team were just too strong for the home team as they emphatically put Palace to the sword running out 7-0 winners to cement their place on top of the tree at Christmas.

It was a result that had left Crystal Palace’s manager Roy Hodgson shellshocked. “It’s an embarrassing result and will be the first time most of us have suffered a defeat of that magnitude. We feel humiliated.”