Fulham 1-3 Liverpool

Fulham were beaten 3-1 by Liverpool on Sunday afternoon at a sunkissed Craven Cottage.

An even first half saw the teams go in level after Timothy Castagne’s first goal for the Club had cancelled out Trent Alexander-Arnold’s free-kick, but the Reds upped their game after the break to take the points.

A peach of a strike from Ryan Gravenberch had them back in front within eight minutes of the restart, before Diogo Jota wrapped things up.

Marco Silva made one enforced change from the side that beat West Ham, with a minor groin strain ruling Willian out. Bobby De Cordova-Reid took his place, and also wore the Captain’s armband from the off for the first time since our 2-2 draw at Arsenal at the start of the season.

Liverpool started brightly and could have taken the lead three minutes in when Luis Diaz got a head on an inch perfect Alexander-Arnold cross, but he glanced inches wide of the far post.

Fulham began to exert more control after that, with half chances for Antonee Robinson from long distance and Tosin at an Andreas Pereira free-kick, but neither defender could find the target.

A first save by either ‘keeper arrived on 25 minutes at the end of a neat Fulham move, but Alisson got down easily enough to João Palhinha’s first time strike from 25 yards.

Liverpool won a couple of free-kicks in dangerous positions from Palhinha fouls, and after Harvey Elliott had poorly passed one straight to the Fulham wall, Alexander-Arnold took charge of the next and duly found the top left corner.

That galvanised the Reds who would have doubled their leads moments later had Bernd Leno not made a terrific stop to push Cody Gakpo’s vicious strike over the bar.

Fulham’s best chance so far arrived four minutes before the break, with Palhinha at the heart. After winning possession, he played a one-two with Alex Iwobi before picking out Rodrigo Muniz, who saw his shot saved at the second time of asking by Alisson.

The Whites went close with a free-kick of our own in stoppage time when Andreas was denied by some Alisson fingertips, but it was an unlikely source who restored parity a minute later.

After Muniz’s header bounced against Jarell Quansah, Castagne was first to the loose ball and showed all the composure of a top class striker to slide it through a host of red shirts and into the back of the net.

But another fast start to a half from Liverpool saw their lead quickly restored. After Harvey Elliott had cut out Iwobi’s spread of the play, Gravenberch picked his spot from the edge of the D and curled a beautiful strike in via the post.

Some precise interplay in the Whites box gave Jota an opening from a tight angle, but he was denied by Leno who then bravely dove onto the loose ball to prevent the follow-up.

We had Leno to thank once more in the 64th minute when another turnover in possession allowed Gakpo to break through, but our big German got a big hand to his shot to keep it out.

The third Liverpool goal wasn’t far away, though, when Gakpo managed to bustle his way beyond Tosin before slipping in Jota who fired across Leno for 3-1.

Fulham had struggled to create clear cut chances since the restart, but late on a Muniz overhead kick smashed into Tosin, with Saša Lukić firing the rebound over.

Substitute Tom Cairney almost made things interesting when he placed one into the corner in the 89th minute, but a full stretch Alisson save pushed it away. Muniz was first to the follow-up but smashed into the side-netting from a near impossible angle.

A frustrating second 45, and ultimately not our day.