Liverpool stored tempo with Arsenal atop of the Premier League desk because of a much-needed 3-1 win over Fulham at Craven Cottage.
The Reds, after shedding final weekend to Crystal Palace, had been in dire want of a confidence-boosting win on Sunday – and so they acquired precisely that.
Objectives from Trent Alexander-Arnold, Ryan Gravenberch and Diogo Jota had been sufficient for Jurgen Klopp’s facet to bounce again from that defeat, and retaining themselves within the hunt for a second ever Premier League title.
This is how X reacted to the sport:
All the discuss earlier than the sport centred round on notable omission from Liverpool’s beginning XI for the sport at Craven Cottage.
Having managed simply two objectives in his final 5 appearances in all competitions, star man Mohamed Salah was neglected of the lineup for Sunday’s sport – a call which induced fairly the stir on social media…
Jurgen Klopp’s choice to drop Salah was nearly instantly vindicated, when Luis Diaz – the who changed him on the suitable of the Reds assault – got here inside a whisker of scoring the opening within the early exchanges.
After that early probability, the sport endured fairly the lull.
For 27 minutes, Liverpool and Fulham prodded the ball across the park with little or no intent, giving each units of supporters nothing to get off their fingers for.
After which Trent Alexander-Arnold woke everybody up with a second of magic.
In his first begin since early February, the right-back stepped up and curled an exquisite free kick over the Fulham wall and into the highest proper nook of the web.
Surprisingly, Liverpool did not actually kick on after opening the scoring, largely failing to check Bernd Leno within the Fulham purpose thereafter within the first half.
A mix of that lack of offensive intent and a few fairly sloppy play from their defence and midfield allowed the house facet to discover a route again into the sport.
Fulham would capitalise upon Liverpool’s struggles late within the half to make it 1-1, with Timothy Castagne popping up with the equaliser.
Following what we think about was fairly a stern staff discuss from Klopp at half-time, Liverpool got here out with renewed vigour within the second half, shortly re-taking the lead.
The Reds’ second purpose would come courtesy of Ryan Gravenberch, who capitalised on some sloppy play from Fulham in their very own defensive third to curve the ball superbly into the underside proper nook of Leno’s purpose.
Liverpool followers had been notably delighted to see their staff lastly rating a purpose from open play – their first in over 400 minutes of soccer.
The Reds pushed on after going forward, piling the stress on Fulham’s backline for the majority of the rest of the second half.
After lacking a couple of respectable probabilities, Liverpool would lastly get their third purpose of the sport within the 71st minute.
The purpose could be scored by Diogo Jota – his one centesimal in English soccer – who, following a intelligent move by means of from Cody Gakpo, would fireplace coolly previous Leno from the left of the penalty space.