Highlights:
Harvey Elliott's fine strike wins it for Liverpool. Jean-Philippe Mateta's penalty saw Crystal Palace take lead. Mohammed Salah equalised seconds after Jordan Ayew was sent off. Crystal Palace had a first-half penalty ruled out by VAR.
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Mohammed Salah scored his 200th Liverpool goal before Harvey Elliott snatched a 2-1 victory at 10-player Crystal Palace, sending the Reds top of the Premier League.
The Eagles had gone ahead through Jean-Philippe Mateta's 57th-minute penalty, given by VAR around two minutes after he was fouled by 20-year-old defender Jarell Quansah inside the area. He then coolly slotted past Alisson for his first Premier League goal of the season.
But Liverpool showed once again they can win even when they are not at their best, and go top of the Premier League ahead of third versus second - Aston Villa vs Arsenal at 5.30pm. Crystal Palace remain in 14th with 16 points, now losing four of their last five league games.
Both sides headed into the game in differing form - Liverpool losing just one of their last 26 Premier League games, while Crystal Palace were booed off by their own fans on Wednesday after a dismal 2-0 defeat to Bournemouth.
But Crystal Palace were the better side for much of the encounter. It took 76 minutes for Liverpool to register a shot on target as Salah's shot was deflected home, coming less than a minute after Jordan Ayew was sent off for two yellow cards.
The hits kept coming for Crystal Palace too as their No 1 Sam Johnstone was taken off with an injury soon after with Liverpool in the ascendancy. His replacement, Remi Matthews, could do little to stop a fine curling effort from Elliott (90+1) to win the game in added time.
"I'm a very happy manager, but I know we were lucky as well. If you only win your really good games, you have no chance to be successful and today was not a really good game from us," Jurgen Klopp said after the win.
"For 76 minutes, it was a really bad performance... The last 10 or 15 minutes, we deserved it. Before that, we deserved nothing."
Team news headlines
The big news for Liverpool was the return of Alisson in goal, replacing Caoimhin Kelleher in one of five changes.
Ibrahima Konate, Joe Gomez, Alexis Mac Allister and Cody Gakpo all dropped out of the. Darwin Nunez, Kostas Tsimikas, Ryan Gravenberch and Jarell Quansah came into the XI.
Crystal Palace made two changes. Tyrick Mitchell dropped out with injury, with former Liverpool defender Nathaniel Clyne coming in at right-back. Michael Olise also started on the bench, with Will Hughes coming into the XI.
Player ratings
Crystal Palace: Johnstone (6), Ward (7), Guehi (7), Andersen (7), Clyne (7), Richards (7), Lerma (7), Hughes (7), Schlupp (6), Ayew (7), Edouard (6).
Subs: Mateta (7), Olise (6), Ahamada (6), Matthews (n/a), Ozoh (n/a).
Liverpool: Alisson (7), Alexander-Arnold (6), Quansah (6), Van Dijk (7), Tsimikas (6), Szoboszlai (6), Endo (6), Gravenberch (6), Salah (7), Nunez (5), Diaz (5).
Subs: Gomez (7), Konate (6), Gakpo (6), Elliott (7), Jones (7).
Player of the Match: Harvey Elliott.
A poor clearance from Michael Olise after Curtis Jones' initial shot fell kindly to Salah, whose strike deflected off a Palace shirt to wrong-foot Johnstone.
The Crystal Palace No1 was then taken off injured and replaced by Matthews, who could not stop the Liverpool onslaught - especially a fine finish from Elliott. Fed by Salah, the forward then lashed a superb curling effort past the goalkeeper.
Both teams could have scored another in added time. Luis Diaz thought he had, but had a strike ruled out for offside. Alisson then pushed away a threatening header from Joachim Andersen to keep Liverpool's three points intact.
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp:
"Pretty impressive from Mo… an incredible number for a super special player. I don't know how often he saved us with a goal he's scored in the right moment.
"It was a pretty loud reception in the dressing room when I gave him the shirt with 200 on the back. I don't know if he made a speech, I had to go for media work.
"Now that's off the shoulders because when you have 199, it's a bit different to 198. Now we can go for the next 100."
On Liverpool's performance: "For 76 minutes, it was a really bad performance. We didn't have rhythm changes, we didn't have any kind of accelerations, we had no timing. It was horrendous.
"There was a sign that we were a bit too passive and stuff like this. In the beginning, Crystal Palace were extremely high on confidence… They were good but we made it happen for them with bad passes and losing the ball in the wrong moment.
"But what we did from 76 to the 105 or whatever, that was really because we know up against 10 men, there can be more problems. We really turned the game around, the subs were super influential.
"That's actually the story so far this season that what we bring from the bench has a real impact. That's why we could do it.
"But if Harvey miss-hits the ball, it's a draw. If Mo is not there and the ball doesn't get deflected, we lose the game.
"I know it's tough. These boys play an awful lot of football and sometimes the inner enemy is a bit louder than in other moments. Today, I saw a lot of boys struggling with that. You can change from outside from the bench and you can change it, but we should not come into that situation much more often."
Opta stats
Liverpool have won 67% of their Premier League away games against Crystal Palace (10/15) their highest win percentage among teams they've played more than 10 times on the road in the competition.
Liverpool have already won four matches in the Premier League this season having conceded the first goal, more than any other team in 2023-24 and one more than they managed in the whole of last season (3).
Crystal Palace have lost four consecutive Premier League home games under one manager for the first time since a run of six-straight defeats under Alan Pardew in March 2016.
Jordan Ayew's red card was his first for Crystal Palace in the Premier League - all three of his red cards in the competition have come while playing for different sides (also one with Swansea and one with Aston Villa).
What's next?
Crystal Palace v Brighton and Hove Albion
Thursday 21st December 7:30pmKick off 8:00pm
Crystal Palace visit champions Manchester City in the Premier League on Saturday December 16, kick-off 3pm. Palace then host Brighton on Thursday December 21, live on Sky Sports. Kick-off 8pm.
Liverpool travel to Union Saint-Gilloise for their final Group E fixture in the Europa League. The Reds have already secured top spot. Kick-off 5.45pm.
Jurgen Klopp's side then host Manchester United on Sunday December 17. Kick-off 4.30pm.
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