Jurgen Klopp gave an honest assessment of his side’s first 76 minutes against Crystal Palace, after which Liverpool were forced to do things the hard way again.

The Reds left it late to seal their third win in a row at Selhurst Park, with goals from Mohamed Salah and Harvey Elliott securing a turnaround victory after Jordan Ayew was sent off for two bookable offences.

It leaves Liverpool on top of the pile after Arsenal fell to a 1-0 defeat away to Aston Villa later in the day, with a huge clash against Man United to come next weekend.

After the game, the manager was critical of his side’s performance and described it as a “really bad” first 76 minutes from the Reds at Selhurst Park.

“Seventy-six minutes, really bad game from us. We came here and I think you could see in the beginning Crystal Palace were insecure, really low confidence levels, and I think we could have done so many things and didn’t,” the manager told TNT Sports following the win.

“We know that happens from time to time and intense weeks, first half is sometimes a bit tricky.

“Obviously, we wanted to do better in the second half, I felt we were a bit more in control because they only had counter-attacks. That’s fine, of course, for them but we lost the ball for a moment and had to defend with a lot of effort.

“I told the boys that’s the first game I’ve seen somebody play as bad as we did for 76 minutes and still winning.

“In this period of the year, I said it after Sheffield United, we have to get through this, we need results. Nobody is in for the Oscar award, best football game ever, it’s about three points we got them and we are more than happy.”

The Reds made life difficult for themselves when Jean-Philippe Mateta opened the scoring from the spot following a lengthy VAR review at Stockley Park.

Salah and Elliott were able to rescue the day despite the somewhat sluggish showing, ensuring that Liverpool will end the gameweek at the top of the tree for the first time since September 2021.

A trip to Union SG awaits in midweek for what will essentially be a dead rubber in the Europa League, before Erik ten Hag’s side come to Anfield having suffered a humiliating 3-0 defeat at home to Bournemouth.