Who saw this coming? The 27,000 at Craven Cottage certainly didn’t, such was the state of utter stupefaction on a spring afternoon to remember in south-west London. Fulham were both dazzling and dogged and, indisputably, deserved winners. For Premier League champions-in-waiting Liverpool, though, it was simply a day to forget. One to write off. By extension for their defence, the opening period saw an utter implosion from all corners.
But here’s the thing: it should not matter. Liverpool’s terrific league season so far has given them a huge margin for error. Their 11-point buffer to Arsenal in second with seven matches to go is still a near-insurmountable advantage and it’s extremely feasible that they could still win their second league title in 35 years by the end of the month. But their pride took a hell of a kicking here on the shores of the Thames.
Their 26-game unbeaten run in the Premier League? Gone. Slot’s undefeated away league record since taking charge? Wiped out. Ultimately perhaps, in a defence still without the injured and Real Madrid-bound Trent Alexander-Arnold, it perhaps game Slot a lesson, a reminder, of where reinforcements are needed in the summer window. For Andy Robertson, in particular, it may well be an error-strewn display, against a team he was sent off against in December, which forces the Reds to act in the transfer market.
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But to overanalyse Liverpool’s leggy display would do an inspired Fulham a disservice. Marco Silva has got the Cottagers chasing European football, with his players flourishing in an easy-on-the-eye fluid system of play, under the lights of their scintillating new Riverside stand. Ryan Sessegnon, Alex Iwobi and a flash of sheer brilliance from Rodrigo Muniz won this game in a barely believable 15-minute first-half spell, rendering Alexis Mac Allister’s stunning opener a distant memory. The whole back-line for the visitors – Jones, Konate, Van Dijk, Robertson – endured individual clangers. Arms were outstretched. Heads were bowed.
The hero of the day, however? Fulham centre-back Calvin Bassey was outstanding, with his barnstorming forward runs and ability to sniff out any threat in behind. He won every battle up against the toothless Mohamed Salah, in particular. A man-of-the-match display, from a cult hero in these parts.
As unexpected as the first-half was, perhaps recent history should have told us otherwise. These two split 11 goals across both matches last season and there were four goals in December, in an entertaining 2-2 draw at Anfield. By half-time, they’d matched that tally. The only shock was that it was Fulham with three of them.
Liverpool’s man of composure in the middle Mac Allister, starting perhaps surprisingly after that horror tackle from James Tarkowski in the midweek derby, opened the scoring early on: a rasping right-footed strike beyond Bernd Leno from outside the box, and it all looked sunshine and roses for the travelling Liverpool fans in the West London heat. “We’re going to win the league,” they abruptly sang. They wouldn’t be singing it again.
Sessegnon, Fulham’s home-grown winger, equalised nine minutes later, capitalising on Curtis Jones’ skewed clearance by beating the laboured Van Dijk to the punch and connecting exquisitely on the run with his left foot. It was past Caoimhin Kelleher in an instant.
Ten minutes later, Fulham would take the lead through Robertson’s moment of calamity. The Scottish left-back misplaced a horrid crossfield ball at the back, gifting the ball to Iwobi, and then compounded the error as he attempted to come across and block the shot. A deflection, a goal and the league leaders looked in a state of utter bemusement. No more so than captain Virgil Van Dijk, arms outstretched in bewilderment at every turn, so much so when Muniz’s moment of genius gave the hosts a two-goal half-time lead. An exquisite first-touch turn from the ball out of the air, bamboozling the Dutch defender, before squeezing the ball below Kelleher. In a flash, Liverpool were two down.
For a team who had lost one Premier League game all season, this was Liverpool’s worst half of football under Arne Slot.
The Dutchman did not hang about after the interval, bringing on Harvey Elliott and Luis Diaz minutes into the second-half, and the Colombian in particular provided fresh vigour on the left-hand side. He set up Salah, goal at his mercy, only for the out-of-form Premier League top scorer to balloon his finish over the bar. The Egyptian is now goalless in four games, his worst run in two years.
Diaz would halve the deficit himself with 20 minutes to go – a poked finish into the corner after a cool set-up by fellow substitute Conor Bradley – and Harvey Elliott rattled the crossbar against his former team. Even the barely-used Federico Chiesa had a stoppage-time sight on goal, well-saved by Leno.
But a sterile Liverpool display did not have the match-saving finale. It was Fulham’s day, as they close to within two points of seventh place and a Europa Conference League spot. Yet for the Premier League leaders, the only solace is that this blip won’t – surely – cost them in the run-in. But it will hurt them.
