Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp saw his side fight back to earn a 2-1 victory over Crystal Palace on Saturday afternoon – a result that has seen them top the League after fellow contender Arsenal were beaten by Aston Villa.
The manager has eclipsed the record previously held by Sir Alex Ferguson for late winning goals in the Premier League after Saturday’s win.
During his 26 years at the helm of Manchester United, Ferguson’s teams had a penchant for scoring late goals.
Stoppage time was even dubbed ‘Fergie Time’ by fans due to the sheer volume of late strikes bagged by the Red Devils – but his record has now been beaten by the manager of United’s arch-rivals.
Harvey Elliott plundered a 91st minute winner for Liverpool at Selhurst Park to send them to the Premier League summit. His strike was the 17th 90th-minute winning goal Liverpool have scored in the Premier League era; one more than the 16 overseen by Ferguson.
Liverpool’s knack for late goals could spell bad news for Manchester United, who travel to Anfield next Sunday after being humbled 3-0 at home by Bournemouth.
Klopp and co had a much better weekend than their arch-rivals – even if they did ride their luck against Crystal Palace.
That didn’t mean Klopp was completely satisfied with his side’s performance, though. He told TNT Sports on Saturday:
“76 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.
“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.
“They get the red card and we score immediately, the equaliser. From that moment on we played really well. You can have much more problems against ten men and we saw today, subs can make a massive difference.”
He went on to add: “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.”
