After defeating Fulham 3-1 at Craven Cottage, Liverpool overcame their setback in Europe to climb to second place in the Premier League, level on points with top of the table Arsenal.
As they maintained their quest for Premier League gold, Jurgen Klopp’s team recovered from last week’s home loss to Crystal Palace and their Europa League exit to Atalanta on Thursday.
The Merseysiders were ahead (32) thanks to a fantastic free-kick from Trent Alexander-Arnold, but Timothy Castagne pulled Marco Silva’s team back inside 45 seconds of the break.
After Manchester City’s unexpected home loss to Palace on Sunday, Mikel Arteta’s team took the lead with a victory over Wolves on Saturday, but Liverpool maintained their lead with a strong second half performance.
After Harvey Elliott’s pass was received, Ryan Gravenberch curled a magnificent finish past Bernd Leno and in off the post to give the visitors a lead again (53).
After the break, Liverpool took advantage of Alisson’s absence and scored three goals in as many minutes. Diogo Jota raced onto a pass from Cody Gakpo and fired low into the bottom right corner to end the match.
Liverpool and Arsenal both now have 74 points as a result of the outcome, although Liverpool is now in second place due to a lower goal differential. Despite playing one fewer game, City is in third place with 73 points. Fulham, meanwhile, has 42 points and is still in 12th place.
Fulham boss Marco Silva:
“They scored an excellent free-kick from Alexander-Arnold, and our reaction was really good. We had some very good moments as well both in open play and with counter-attacks.
“The score was fair at half-time because the reaction was good. I thought we deserved the equaliser and the goal in that moment. We wanted to start the second half with the same intensity but the way we conceded the second was really hard to take.
“It was a good chance for us to make a counter-attack as they were open and it was something we planned to explore but we gave the ball away and they scored. From that moment, the reaction was not so good. We have to learn from that situation.
“We have 12 points to fight for and that should be our focus. It’s been a long but very good journey for this football club. The ambition is to get more and more.
“We have a group of players who are professional and who will always fight for the shirt. We have points to fight for no matter who we play. No one can doubt our players because we’ve been really professional in every moment of the season.”
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp: “We’ve won the last two away games and the performance today was really good besides the final 10 minutes of the first half. We don’t have to concede then, but we obviously do.
“It’s a squad game and we need all of them. We need to fight through games. All these boys have massive quality. Sometimes the momentum isn’t there but the quality is insane. We need to figure out who and when for what and for how long. That’s part of the job.
“It makes it 74 [points] for us – we had a really good feeling that at Atalanta the performance was alright but we didn’t go through and today was even better.
“Why wouldn’t we respond? How did we get where we are? This is the strongest and most intense league in the world and we are here in this fight with two sensational teams. If we didn’t have character we wouldn’t be here.
“Sometimes you need to get momentum back and we’ve got that back a little. Do you think City feel the pressure? They have won everything in the last few years.
“We have to focus on ourselves. I try to say things that would help – if we start thinking about City it wouldn’t help.”
Crystal Palace visits Fulham on Saturday, April 27.
On Wednesday, April 24, Liverpool will go across Stanley Park to play Everton.
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