Adam Wharton shines on Merseyside, Mateo Kovacic displays City’s depth and Erik ten Hag gets tetchy
Joachim Andersen was named Sky’s man of the match at Anfield and with good reason. But while the Danish centre-back won header after header and made clearance after clearance, and while the front three of Jean-Philippe Mateta, Eberechi Eze and Michael Olise caused repeated problems on the break, there was one figure who stood out in midfield for his calmness: Adam Wharton, perhaps the brightest of the hugely promising generation brought through by Tony Mowbray at Blackburn. The 20-year-old moved to Palace in January for an initial fee of £18m and has played at least some part in every Crystal Palace game since. No other Palace player came close to his pass completion rate of 88% and, while they rode their luck to an extent in the second half, they’d have had to ride a lot more had it not been for his distribution, which helped prevent Liverpool building up a head of steam. Jonathan Wilson
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