Alonso and Luis Garcia should be available to face Chelsea.The Palace manager, Iain Dowie, also made four changes, with Danny Granville, Tony Popovic, Aki Riihilahti and Tom Soares all recalled. The changes seemed to work as Palace displayed an excellent attitude, high work-rate and the displays of Johnson, central defender Fitz Hall and midfielder Michael Hughes were superb.Although Liverpool settled into the game better than their hosts, Palace seemed to be the more threatening. In the 27th minute Hall played a superb crossfield pass to release Johnson, whose clever reverse ball found Granville, but the left-back could not find the finish to match his run and Jerzy Dudek saved easily. At the other end, Le Tallec found Baros with a clever pass, but Gonzalo Sorondo was alert to the danger and made a perfectly timed tackle for Palace.The home side took the lead in the 35th minute.

Jamie Carragher headed Granville’s cross clear, but when Routledge volleyed the ball back into the danger zone from the right it was Johnson who reacted quickest to head the ball into Dudek’s bottom-right corner.Palace began the second half as dynamically as they had ended the first, and Liverpool were lucky not to fall further behind. Sami Hyypia and Pellegrino made a hash of Johnson’s low cross, but Soares – perhaps surprised that the ball had reached him – shot high and wide.Liverpool responded by switching to a 4-4-2 formation after Fernando Morientes’ header had been saved by Gabor Kiraly, Benitez sending on Riise for Pellegrino. After a quiet first half, Gerrard’s influence grew as his side came forward in search of an equaliser.The England midfielder showed his ability with a clever pass for Morientes in the 71st minute, and the Spain striker was denied only by a superb tackle from Popovic. Eight minutes later, a raking pass from Gerrard picked out the Liverpool substitute Djibril Ciss?n the right corner of the penalty area, but the Frenchman’s volley was easily stopped by Kiraly.The Hungary goalkeeper then kept his side in front with a fantastic save from Gerrard’s well-struck effort from 20 yards following Morientes’ knock-down At the end, Palace sometimes defended with eight men But they defended well..

St George’s Day goals by two Englishmen propelled Chelsea closer towards the title yesterday, before Eidur Gudjohnsen wrapped up three more points and prompted the first chants of the day for San Jose. Mourinho knows the way to win trophies and his substitutions, a typical mixture of the shrewd and quirky, had significant influence here. His freshness contrasted with the weariness of many team-mates, which Mourinho believed was responsible for the comparatively modest quality of his team’s performance. They were sluggish until Cole scored with a beautifully struck shot in the 17th minute, and even then Ricardo Carvalho allowed Collins John in to equalise.

Midway through the second half, Robben set up Frank Lampard for the second goal and Tiago, another substitute, eventually sent Gudjohnsen through for the third.Fulham, with Tomasz Radzinski and Luis Boa Morte wide, might have been outnumbered in the middle of the pitch, but Mark Pembridge and Lee Clark kept them competitive, even in the absence of Papa Bouba Diop’s physical strength, and Boa Morte’s trickery was always a threat. Mourinho admitted that the visitors were unfortunate to lose on the day, claiming they were fresher after having an extra day’s rest since their midweek match. He will not be able to apply the same excuse against Liverpool.At least there are no fresh injuries, and William Gallas, rested here, will be ready to return on Wednesday. If there are any weaknesses to be exploited, full-back would be an area Rafael Benitez and his coaches should concentrate on, for Glen Johnson was again shaky, which encouraged Fulham to feed Boa Morte down his flank.The perfect scenario for Chelsea, of course, would have been to have beaten Arsenal in midweek and then win yesterday, sewing things up 50 years to the day after the club’s only previous title. Watched by Roy Bentley, the captain of the 1955 team, they seemed to be suffering not so much a hangover from Wednesday’s exertions as the sort of torpor that often seems to surround these lunchtime kick-offs. Damien Duff’s mastery of Moritz Volz down the Chelsea left was the most encouraging feature early on, Didier Drogba heading one peach of a cross over the bar.The unfortunate Volz was at fault for the opening goal, allowing the ball to bounce off him to Drogba, who laid it square for Cole to bend past Edwin van der Sar from 20 yards. Racing to the dug-out to receive congratulations, Cole was told to swap wings with Duff, who immediately set up Drogba for a swivel and left-footed shot past a post.