Reds dare to dream again

Liverpool 3 Crystal Palace 1

And there is a quiet optimism on Merseyside that the achievements of Liverpool ladies in winning the Women’s Super League could even be matched by their male counterparts this season.

It is still very early days, of course, but Brendan Rodgers’ side have in Daniel Sturridge and Luis Suarez the most feared strike partnership around.

Predictably the pair both netted again in this emphatic victory over Crystal Palace to continue their red-hot streak. Uruguay striker Suarez has now scored 19 goals in his last 22 Liverpool games, while England international Sturridge has 19 in 25 games since joining the club from Chelsea in January.

And if the duo maintain that level of form it’s going to be difficult to discount Liverpool as credible challengers in what is already shaping up to be an open Premier League title race.

Inevitably Rodgers would not get carried away with his side’s impressive start to the campaign although, interestingly, he even believes they have not yet hit top form.

“I think you always get a good indication of where you can be after 10 games and after that you look towards the halfway point,” Rodgers said.

“We’ll get better in the second half of the season but what was critical for us was that we made a good start. I believe that we have still got a lot of improvement to make which is good, especially if we continue with this mentality of winning games — we’ve won five out of seven — but there is still a lot of improvement to be made.

“The mentality of the players to improve has been excellent. In the opening seven games we haven’t hit the performance levels we want to. But we’ve shown we can win games even when we don’t play our best.”

Liverpool ended this game as a contest before half-time after outclassing Palace in the first period.

Suarez put the Liverpool ahead when he picked up Jose Enrique’s cutback and despite losing his footing improvised to hook the ball in the net.

Liverpool’s continued pressure was repaid shortly after as Sturridge got himself on the scoresheet with a fine solo strike. The England forward had Delaney dancing a jig inside the penalty area before he cracked a superb low finish across goal into the corner of the net.

“Daniel and Luis are both really talented but different types of players,” Rodgers added.

“I think that maybe the worry for some people would be if they would only be able to play on their own. But when you see them like they were you realise just how well they work together.”

Liverpool were awarded a penalty before the interval when Raheem Sterling was held back by Palace left-back Dean Moxey. Steven Gerrard sent Palace goalkeeper Julian Speroni the wrong way as he buried the spot-kick to notch his first goal of the campaign.

“I was bemused by the decision,” fumed Palace boss Ian Holloway. “It was absolutely minimal contact, if anything at all, and it wasn’t even inside the box!.”

Liverpool could not maintain their intensity after the break and Palace pulled one back when Sterling conceded a free-kick having brought down Yannick Bolasie.

Jose Campana’s free-kick picked out Dwight Gayle and he glanced a near-post header past Simon Mignolet in the Liverpool goal and into the net. The result left Palace, widely tipped for the drop, mired in the bottom three with three points and six defeats from seven games.

Holloway refused to wallow in self-pity even if his players are finding out the reality of the Premier League compared to the Championship.

“I think they will get better and the character of the team will improve,” Holloway added. “Unfortunately we are finding out the hard way that at this level if you don’t take your opportunities, and they might be few and far between, it is going to be a long tough game and season.

“We are also being punished for any mistake we are making at the moment.”

LIVERPOOL (3-5-1-1): S Mignolet (7); K Toure (7), M Skrtel (6), M Sakho (6; 67); R Sterling (7), J Henderson (7), S Gerrard (7), Jose Enrique (6), V Moses (7; 66; D Sturridge (8; 88), L Suarez (8) .

Subs: L Alberto (5: 66), D Agger (6; 67), I Aspas (6; 88).

CRYSTAL PALACE: J Speroni (7); D Moxey (5), A Mariappa (6), D Delaney (5), J Ward (6); S O’Keefe (5), M Jedinak (5), J Puncheon (6); J Kebe (6; 45); C Jerome (5; 45), M Chamakh (4; 68).

Subs: D Gayle (7; 45), J Campana (45; 6), Y Bolasie (7; 68).

Referee: Anthony Taylor

Attendance: 44,721.