Mohamed 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.

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 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 also lucky. If you only win your really good games, you have no chance to be successful and today was not a good game for 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."

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 - live on Sky Sports at 5.30 pm. Crystal Palace remain in 14th with 16 points, now losing four of their last five league games.

It was a quiet opening 28 minutes - but the game sprang into life with a stunning Alisson save on his return from injury. Ayew whipped a ball into the area, picking out Jefferson Lerma at the back post. But his close-range effort was saved by Alisson, who tipped the ball onto the post before clawing it further off the line.

A minute later, Crystal Palace was awarded a penalty. Virgil van Dijk clipped Odsonne Edouard from behind as he went to shoot, with referee Andy Madley rightly pointing to the spot.

But VAR intervened to check a Will Hughes foul on Wataru Endo in the build-up. It took a lengthy check on the pitchside monitor before Madley ruled out the penalty, with Van Dijk's blushes saved and the yellow card rescinded.

Both managers made half-time changes. Mateta replaced Edouard, while Joe Gomez came on for Endo, pushing Trent Alexander-Arnold into midfield.

Ten minutes after the break Mateta was key in Crystal Palace taking the lead. He was fouled in the penalty area by Quansah, which was initially waved away.

But around two minutes later, play was stopped as Madley went over to the pitchside monitor. He took considerably less time to decide the second