Liverpool end title-winning season with draw against Crystal Palace | OneFootball

FA Cup winners Crystal Palace did their best to spoil Liverpool’s title party as they secured a 1-1 draw at Anfield.

A 1-1 draw and Ryan Gravenberch’s red card could not dampen spirits as fans were not prepared to allow anything to spoil seeing the trophy lift in person for the first time in 35 years.

Mohamed Salah equalled the Premier League record of most goal involvements in a season – Andy Cole (1993-94) and Alan Shearer (1994-95) achieved 47 in a 42-game season – with an 84th-minute leveller.

And to prove the occasion was all about celebration even the tearful departing Trent Alexander-Arnold, who was jeered on his last appearance at Anfield, was welcomed back into the fold.

Supporters who were still maybe not prepared to forgive at least ensured the defender’s 354th and final appearance after a 20-year association with his boyhood club did not end on a sour note.

The words of former manager Jurgen Klopp on Friday evening, back at Anfield for the first time a year after leaving, saying fans were wrong in their treatment of the academy graduate succeeded in cutting through the noise surrounding his pending move for Real Madrid.

That indicates the spell the German can still cast over a fanbase who still worship him after a successful nine-year reign.

Alexander-Arnold seemed determined to make the most of the occasion, entering as a half-time substitute to warm if not loud applause, and it was one of his trademark raking, through-the-eye-of-a-needle passes which set up Liverpool’s best chance for fellow substitute Darwin Nunez.

That the Uruguay international could not take advantage, being denied by Dean Henderson, is one of the reasons why he too is likely to also leave in the summer, albeit with none of the acrimony despite hugely under-performing.

It also highlighted what Liverpool will be losing, with the imminent arrival of Bayer Leverkusen’s Jeremie Frimpong introducing a player with an attacking intent but not the quality on the ball of Alexander-Arnold.

By that point, still trailing to Ismaila Sarr’s ninth-minute goal, head coach Arne Slot had five forwards on the pitch.

But a straight red for Gravenberch, who had been booked for diving but shown a straight red card after his miscontrol resulted in him bringing down Daichi Kamada on the halfway line, and forcing Luis Diaz to be sacrificed for midfielder Wataru Endo.

One of those forwards Diogo Jota bundled a shot against the post before Salah, already assured of a fourth Golden Boot, fired home.

Ironically, the loudest noise prior to that had come immediately after conceding.

Conor Bradley’s pass to Salah was intercepted by Tyrick Mithchell and he played Sarr into the space between the widely-split centre-backs to beat Alisson Becker.

While the goal was celebrated by the travelling fans the Kop went into overdrive, belting out their Federico Chiesa song at full volume – and the Italian was not even in the matchday squad.

The atmosphere was feverish as, with Klopp, fellow former manager Rafael Benitez, a host of club greats, Jordan Henderson – the man who lifted the trophy behind closed doors in 2020 – and principal owner John W Henry in a rare appearance watching on, the Kop sang “Bring out the champions” before kick-off.

When they did arrive there was an unprecedented double guard of honour, with the new FA Cup holders honouring the soon-to-be crowned Premier League winners, who then reciprocated.

That party feel returned when three minutes of added time were announced in the knowledge that Alan Hansen, the last Liverpool captain to lift the trophy at Anfield in front of fans 12,808 days ago, would soon be handing it over to Virgil van Dijk.

The final whistle was blown against a backdrop of a rousing chorus of You’ll Never Walk Alone and “Champions, champions”.

The title had been won four weeks ago with victory over Tottenham but this was the moment Anfield had been waiting for.