Arne Slot stopped short of laying into his Liverpool players after a chaotic 3-2 defeat at Fulham put Premier League title celebrations on temporary hiatus. The gap between them and Arsenal stayed at 11 points, meaning Liverpool still need another 11 to prevail after a defeat, just their second of the campaign, that owed much to some poor defending in the first half at Craven Cottage. “This can happen against a good team like Fulham,” Slot said. “If you make mistakes they have the quality to punish them.”
Fulham’s goals from Ryan Sessegnon, the outstanding Alex Iwobi and Rodrigo Muniz all came within a first 45 minutes where Curtis Jones was playing as an emergency right-back. Each of his more experienced defensive colleagues were just as culpable, including Virgil van Dijk.
