Crystal Palace condemned Liverpool to back-to-back home defeats.
The visitors took a decisive lead through Eberechi Eze slotting home from Tyrick Mitchell’s cutback in front of The Kop on Alisson’s return.
Curtis Jones enjoyed the Reds’ best chance of an equaliser when he bore down on goal in the second half but dragged his shot wide of the target.
Jurgen Klopp’s side have lost further ground in the Premier League title race, dropping to third in the table and two points behind leaders Manchester City.
Here were the key talking points from Anfield:
Is the title dream over?
If Liverpool look back on a season of increasing regret, the past four days will invariably be pinpointed as the period when thing finally started to unravel.
Thursday’s Europa League quarter-final humbling by Atalanta was a wake-up call and one which has all but killed off another potential avenue to silverware.
Jurgen Klopp promised that the Anfield faithful would see a clear reaction against a Crystal Palace side winless on their travels since early November.
But the German was left eating his words as the hosts ceded further ground in the Premier League title race after the Eagles carved them open early on.
Results elsewhere on Sunday may have kept the margins tight at the top yet the Reds are again reprising the role of hunters to Manchester City’s hunted.
Recent history suggests that Klopp’s side do not thrive when the underdog tag is thrust upon them, as it so often has been during his top-flight tenure.
There is still likely to be more twists and turns in the title race before next month’s finale but Anfield risks becoming a casual observer once more.
Reds must stop blinking first
Kopites of a nervous disposition would do well to avoid the litany of statistics which emerged from this game that laid bare their team’s alarming flaws.
The end of a 28-game unbeaten run in the league which began against Leeds in October 2022 was the most notable from the Londoners’ hard-fought win.
Others were equally damning, such as their first back-to-back defeats since April last year while the same sequence on home soil dated back to 2021.
The real devil was in the detail of Eberechi Eze’s 14th-minute opener.
Liverpool have now conceded the opening goal 14 times in the Premier League this term and have trailed at some stage in 21 of 32 games overall.
Some might argue that the thrill of the chase is what makes Klopp’s side such a dangerous prospect for their opponents and entertaining for the onlookers.
The novelty, however, has long worn off and a collective lethargy suggested that it may not just be their manager who is the one running out of energy.
Learning not to blink first would go a long way to reviving what little threatens to be left for salvaging from a season which is in danger of truly fizzling out.
Nunez has gone off the boil
Anfield’s No.9 continues to prove something of a poisoned chalice.
In the Premier League era, Liverpool’s iconic digit has seen more players fail to live up to its lofty expectations than those who served it with real distinction.
Darwin Nunez is increasingly falling into the former category after struggling to impose himself on proceedings with a third scoreless outing in a red shirt.
Similarities between the Uruguayan and Djibril Cisse are increasingly striking, a full two decades since the latter made a similarly feted move to Merseyside.
Granted, the flamboyant Frenchman did not command anywhere near the same respect and adulation that his latest successor enjoys from The Kop.
But Nunez again lacked the attributes which earned him automatic starter status earlier in the season as Dean Henderson was largely untroubled.
He was by no means Liverpool’s worst performer in the attacking third, with Mohamed Salah also noticeably underwhelming, but is worryingly off the boil.
No player across Europe’s top five leagues has produced a lower conversion rate from big chances this season than Nunez’s currently paltry return of 20%.
Without an improvement, the 24-year-old could soon find himself demoted.