Crystal Palace 0-2 Liverpool, Sadio Mane made sure of the points for Jurgen Klopp's men with a lightning breakaway in stoppage time

                                                                                            Roberto Firmino was smothered by Palace for much of the night but on this occasion threaded the ball successfully to Salah. Sakho was trying to get the ball, but it was clumsy and always teetering on the brink of calamity. Salah was preparing to shoot but tumbled instead. Maybe he exaggerated the fall, but not the foul. Milner stepped up and, in front of a raucous home end, stuck the ball smartly past Wayne Hennessey.

The usual mocking mimes followed Salah around for the rest of the match, but he isn’t a diver.There is a reason Liverpool traded Sakho and it was there in the 44th minute. Palace had worked like stink to take Liverpool to half-time goalless, then Sakho surrendered it with a moment of rashness. The home fans fumed, raged and cried cheat at Salah and Michael Oliver, the referee, but it was a foul that did the damage, not a dive.Wan-Bissaka set off in pursuit but getting there was always a desperately tall order, even for one so fast. An older, wiser head would have left it for goalkeeper Hennessey to deal with, stayed alert to being first to any rebound and what will be, will be. Wan-Bissaka tried his luck. He clipped Salah in full flow, the results were spectacular and gave Oliver no option but to brandish a red card. Wan-Bissaka is a star in the making and beneath the gaze of England manager Gareth Southgate was impressing, right up to the moment the rashness of youth curtailed his evening. There were 15 minutes to go when Firmino put Salah away and he outstripped Palace’s back four to tear on goal.Milner has found the net 49 times in the Premier League, across 48 games and 16 years. The end result: 38 wins and 10 draws. So full credit to Crystal Palace for trying their damnedest to battle the inevitable, but history favoured three points for Liverpool from that moment and history was not to be contradicted.

The home fans felt hard done by over the penalty and berated the man who won it, Mohamed Salah, until the bitter end, but they did not have a case. The penalty was a penalty, the sending-off for Aaron Wan-Bissaka over a separate incident was a red card and Liverpool’s late second goal provided a scoreline that pretty much reflected the difference between the teams.