Liverpool’s second home win of the week was tame compared to the drama and fury of the first but a welcome departure for Jürgen Klopp nonetheless. A fifth Premier League victory in succession, Liverpool’s best run of the season, maintained faint hope of Champions League qualification and brought yet another milestone in the glittering Anfield career of Mohamed Salah.
The angry manager on display this time was Marco Silva. Fulham’s manager accused VAR of abdicating its responsibilities and Darwin Núñez of diving for the penalty that decided the game and destroyed his team’s otherwise fine defensive display. Salah converted just as he did against Tottenham on Sunday, and became the first player to score in eight consecutive Liverpool home games. Gordon Hodgson and Luis Suárez scored in eight consecutive home appearances for Liverpool, in 1927-28 and 2014, but their sequences of appearances were interrupted by injury and suspension respectively. Salah now stands fifth on the club’s all-time league goalscorers’ list and one behind Steven Gerrard’s tally of 186 in all competitions. Silva was in no mood to offer praise.
“The way they scored the goal, I have to say that is embarrassing,” said the Fulham manager. “I think we deserved much more and to lose in that manner is really difficult for us to understand. When Darwin touched the ball he started to dive himself but after he touched his left leg with Issa, they are going to say it is harsh but the referee gave it and the VAR cannot take it away. For us it is clearly not a penalty and the VAR should not allow that decision to go from the referee. The referee made a mistake.”
Liverpool were indebted to Salah’s precision and Alisson’s excellence in goal for the victory that closed the gap on fourth-placed Manchester United to four points, although Erik ten Hag’s side have two games in hand. The Liverpool goalkeeper produced a superb save to deny Carlos Vinícius in an anxious finale that also saw Bobby Decordova-Reid miss a clear chance in stoppage time.
Salah, Núñez and Luis Díaz would have been most people’s idea of Liverpool’s first choice forward line at the start of the season, and an enticing prospect too, but it has remained little more than an idea due to a serious knee injury sustained by the Colombia international and a difficult debut campaign for the Uruguay striker. The trio started together for only the fifth time against Fulham and showed both flashes of rich promise as a combination as well as understandable rust.
Klopp reflected: “They did well. You can see with Luis after 30 minutes that it’s really tough for him. It’s tough for everybody, we play a lot of games. We had a discussion: ‘Who shall we rest?’ Is it Cody [Gakpo]?’ Because Diogo [Jota] couldn’t train again. For long spells it did really well. Darwin was like a racehorse. Really motivated, really on fire. That’s important to us. When Diogo and Cody came on, they were really involved in the defensive work. We had a few sensational chances when the last pass didn’t go through and everything was nearly perfect. There we could have done better but it’s fine. I like what I saw.”
Liverpool dominated possession but the visitors were a threat on the counterattack throughout, passing their way bravely through midfield and prospering down their right flank. Virgil van Dijk prevented Harry Wilson setting up Vinícius early on while Alisson denied the Fulham forward with a flying save after both had latched on to through balls from Tosin Adarabioyo.
Trent Alexander-Arnold, Salah and Díaz all went close to opening the scoring from incisive Liverpool attacks but Fulham were coping comfortably with the pressure when Diop gifted the hosts a breakthrough. The central defender, starting as a result of Tim Ream being ruled out for the remainder of the season, dawdled too long when receiving an Adarabioyo pass across his penalty area. By the time he swiped at a clearance, and missed, Núñez had nipped in to take the ball off Diop’s toes and went tumbling over the challenge. Stuart Attwell immediately pointed to the spot, VAR backed the on-field decision, and Salah drove the spot-kick down the centre of Bernd Leno’s goal. It was such a soft way for Fulham to undo 39 minutes of solid, intelligent work but Liverpool accepted the invitation gratefully.
The second half was a relatively subdued affair with Fulham keeping Liverpool at bay while lacking the threat that sharpened their first half performance. It reappeared late on, however, when Willian broke into space down the left and squared to Vinícius as the forward sprinted into the penalty area. His first touch took him clear of Liverpool’s backline and left him with Alisson to beat from close range. Not for the first time this season, the Brazil international came to his team’s aid with a superb reflex save, turning away Vinícius’ shot with a strong right arm and keeping Liverpool on course for another hard-fought victory.
