Arne Slot sends clear Curtis Jones message after Liverpool player does Cole Palmer job

Liverpool head coach Arne Slot praises match-winner Curtis Jones after the Premier League victory over Chelsea at Anfield on Sunday

Arne Slot saluted match-winner Curtis Jones for the job he performed to nullify Cole Palmer as Liverpool beat Chelsea 2-1 at Anfield on Sunday. Jones started the game at Anfield over Alexis Mac Allister, who was an injury doubt having not trained with his team-mates earlier this week after returning from Argentina duty, and the England Under-21 international took his chance in what was his first Premier League start of the season.

The midfielder won the penalty that was converted by Mohamed Salah in the first half before he netted the winning goal from the Egyptian's cross after Nicolas Jackson had made it 1-1 in the second period.

Slot said the biggest contribution from Jones, however, was how he kept Chelsea and England star Palmer quiet throughout the game as the Reds regained their lead at the top of the Premier League.

"Curtis had a very good game and a difficult job trying to control Cole Palmer, who is an incredible player in my opinion," Slot said. "It's so difficult to defend him because he has so many qualities and Curtis did that really well today.

"He, in my opinion, controlled him for most of the game and it is almost impossible to control a player like this for 90 minutes but he was quite close to that but to also have an impact on the other side of that with a goal and two penalties that we were involved in, one was disallowed by VAR, that shows you he had a big impact on both sides of the pitch

Slot added: "Of course [I'm pleased] about the outcome because if you win you are always pleased but in an ideal world we would have outplayed them completely but that is definitely not what we did. It was an equal game and there were phases in the game where we had to work hard not to concede but it is also very pleasing to see that is what we did.

"We all saw the great block tackles Curtis Jones and Dominik Szoboszlai did and those moments are as crucial as the goals we scored. Added to that there were a lot of decisions by the referee which made it the game it was and whether you are a Liverpool supporter or Chelsea supporter you liked what you saw today but especially if you are a Liverpool supporter you liked what you saw today."