Liverpool have made a brilliant start to life under Arne Slot and they will look to keep their run of eight wins from nine games going when the Premier League leaders travel to Crystal Palace on Saturday for a 12:30 p.m. kick off.
While Slot's Liverpool are ticking along nicely, the hosts are struggling, with Oliver Glasner's side in 18th and winless after their first six matches of the season.
Liverpool, fresh from their 2-0 win over Bologna in midweek, will hope to maintain momentum with Mohamed Salah, Luis Díaz, Diogo Jota and Darwin Núñez all hoping to impress, while Palace will look to the brilliant Eberechi Eze and summer signing Eddie Nketiah to try and find a way to secure their first league win this term.
"They've already shown how tough of an opponent they are against the big teams like [Manchester] United and Chelsea," Slot told a news conference on Friday.
"In both situations they got a result. That's the first game and that's why it's the most important on and difficult one for us. [A] 12:30 p.m. kick off after playing Wednesday evening late in the Champions League, facing again a team that has a whole week to prepare but that is part of working at a top club that we face those teams and we have to be ready for those teams.
"Last season they finished really strong, lost one or two good players. I said it about Wolves last week and I can say the same about this team, they will do better during the season, hopefully not tomorrow of course."
Liverpool looking for that perfect wave
The 2-0 win over Bologna on Wednesday saw Slot become the first Liverpool manager to win eight of their first nine matches in charge. "I don't draw many conclusions from that, but it's nice," Slot said. "So many incredible managers have worked here, doing so many special things. The only thing is I hope it is not the only thing people remember me for in two or three years, or however long I am here."
After the Wolves match Slot was pleased with the win, but sounded a note of caution:"[For] the long term you have to look at the performance," he said. "I don't think we started well." After their midweek win in the Champions League, he said it was a "good result but I would not use the word 'delighted.'" The Dutch coach appears to be challenging his team to put together the perfect 90-minute performance.
Slot's predecessor Jürgen Klopp was famed for his grumblings about early Saturday kick-offs after midweek European matches, and Slot faces the same challenge. He'll be looking for his team to start the match at a high tempo, and keep their opponents at arms length throughout, and central to that will be Ryan Gravenberch, who has been a revelation in the No. 6 spot.
"I was delighted with Ryan [Gravenberch]," Slot said after the Bologna win. "Again a big performance from him. He was able to turn his man, which is really important against man marking. He was again outstanding today."
Gravenberch has become integral to the spine of the team, alongside Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold. All three are out of contract in the summer and, as my colleague Mark Ogden wrote, Liverpool will need to be mindful of this not becoming a distraction.
Palace need to find a win anyway, anyhow, anywhere
Having finished last season with a flurry of wonderful performances -- including a 4-0 hammering of hapless Manchester United and six wins from seven in the league -- this season to date has been a bit more tentative for Palace.
Glasner's reputation and work at the club after replacing Roy Hodgson in February drew covetous eyes from Bayern Munich in the summer, but those memories will feel a mile away now he's in a nitty-gritty scrap at the foot of the Premier League after three draws and three defeats.
They've struggled to convert chances, with only Southampton having scored fewer goals than Palace this season, and have made a series of unfortunate mistakes. Some of this could be put down to the unfamiliarity of the squad, especially over the first three matches where they were still recruiting.
There's been significant upheavel at Selhurst Park. In the summer, Michael Olise left for Bayern, Joachim Andersen joined Fulham and Jordan Ayew, Odsonne Édouard and Sam Johnstone also left, but they did manage to keep hold of Marc Guéhi amid strong interest from Newcastle, and the brilliant Eze.
They also brought in Nketiah, Trevoh Chalobah on loan, Ismaïla Sarr, Maxence Lacroix and Daichi Kamada. But they've looked disjointed this season, and though they've found themselves in promising areas of the pitch, they're struggling to turn that into goals.
Palace trip starts tricky spell for Liverpool
The next batch of matches, starting with Palace, will be a true acid test of Slot's Liverpool. After Palace and the international break, they have Chelsea (h), Arsenal (a), Brighton (h), Aston Villa (h), Southampton (a), Manchester City (h), Newcastle (a), Everton (a) in the league, while in the Champions League they face a tricky trip to Leipzig, before they host Bayer Leverkusen and Real Madrid. It's a fiercely difficult run, and one which will test the depth of his squad.
Key to this is going to be squad rotation. There's been some juggling up front -- Darwin Núñez started against Bologna on Wednesday, while Jota got the nod for their trip to Wolves last time out in the league. But the rest of the team is pretty settled, with Ibrahima Konaté and Van Dijk the first-choice centre-back partnership and the midfield trio of Dominik Szoboszlai, Alexis Mac Allister and Gravenberch well established.
To manage the upcoming run of games, you expect Slot is going to have to rotate a touch more and integrate players like Joe Gomez, Curtis Jones, Cody Gakpo, Wataru Endo and Federico Chiesa (who is in doubt for Saturday's game) more from the outset.
"We still have yet to prove that if we come across Arsenal, Newcastle, Chelsea and Aston Villa, that we can still be up there, with Champions League games included as well," Slot said last weekend. "Two years ago was the last time they played in the Champions League and they finished fifth.
"Everybody is realistic. All the players have so much experience that they understand that six games into the season does not give you a realistic view of the table, that is more like after 19 games."