Fulham 3-2 Liverpool

Fulham earned three deserved points against league leaders Liverpool at a sunny Craven Cottage on Sunday.

Marco Silva made five changes to the side that fell to a narrow defeat against Arsenal in the week, with Calvin Bassey, Ryan Sessegnon, Andreas Pereira, Alex Iwobi and Rodrigo Muniz all starting.

Alexis Mac Allister put the visitors ahead before Sessegnon, Iwobi and Muniz completed a first-half turnaround.

Luis Diaz pulled one back for Liverpool in the second half, but Silva’s side held strong to see out a huge Premier League victory.

A strong Fulham start granted an early chance; Andreas dispossessed Ibrahima Konate in the Liverpool box and squared to Muniz, who was put under just enough pressure by Virgil van Dijk to thwart the attempt on goal.

Liverpool, however, took the lead 14 minutes in; Konate beat Muniz to a header and Mac Allister drove with the ball before beating Bernd Leno with a powerful effort from 20 yards out.

Fulham’s response to the early setback was almost instant. Playing with the same intensity they started the match, Sessegnon latched onto the ball in the box and arrowed a half-volley past Caomhim Kelleher, marking his second Premier League start of the season with a second goal.

Silva’s side were not to be satisfied with the scores level however and a first-half comeback was completed when Iwobi had a goal-bound strike deflect off Andy Robertson into the net.

The league leaders were looking anything but as Fulham added a third in the 36th; Muniz shrugged off van Dijk, looping a high ball over his head before drilling an effort between the legs of Kelleher.

The second half started more evenly matched with Liverpool starting to cope with Fulham’s tempo. Sessegnon broke away behind Robertson, but his cutback to Andreas was just short. Sarah found himself behind the Fulham defence but blazed an effort well over Leno’s goal.

Liverpool did pull one back in the 72nd minute, with Diaz poking an effort past Leno after Conor Bradley carried the ball forward.

Silva made a triple change in response, with Andreas, Muniz and the booked Saša Lukić making way for Emile Smith Rowe, Raúl Jiménez and Harrison Reed, in an attempt to see out all three points.

Two more changes were made shortly after, with Adama Traoré coming on Kenny Tete making his long awaited return, in place of Iwobi and Sessegnon as Fulham shifted to a back five.

In a late Fulham attack, Castagne shrugged off Diaz and found Raúl, who laid off a nice ball for Reed to strike, but Kelleher saved well from 20 yards.

The full-time whistle blew and Fulham had landed a statement victory, handing Liverpool their first defeat on the road in the Premier League this season.