Andros Townsend believes Crystal Palace can shock title-chasing Liverpool when the teams clash this Saturday.
Jurgen Klopp’s Reds have opened up an eight-point lead at the top of the Premier League following an excellent start to the season.
Palace were the last side to beat Liverpool on their own turf at Anfield in the league, back in April 2017.
Despite having home advantage, wide man Townsend says the Eagles will have to be at their best defensively to triumph again.
“You approach the game differently, you know you are not going to get much possession,” he said to the Premier League website. “You know you will have to defend for 90 minutes, even as a winger.
“My main priority going into the game, is that I need to be a defender first. If we get counter-attacks, I will attack, but definitely if you defend well and take your chances at the other side you can definitely pull off a shock, as we have proven many times before.
“It is going to be difficult, but if you do the defensive things perfectly and going forward you are clinical, you can pull off a big shock.”
Palace sit 12th in the table with 15 points from their first 12 matches and Townsend says he is happy with the unusually impressive start.
“The biggest thing since I have joined Palace is we have always started slow, we have always given ourselves too much to do,” said the 28-year-old.
“Every year we try and say, ‘Come on, guys. Let’s pull our finger out a bit earlier’. This season was the opposite, we were delighted with our start.
“We knew about this daunting run we had with the top six sides all in a row. We’ve probably picked up a couple of points less than we would have liked.
“But we’re still in mid-table and we can have a real go for it in December once we’ve got Liverpool out of the way.”