Liverpool drew level with Arsenal at the top of the Premier League standings with a 3-1 win over Fulham at Craven Cottage on Sunday, thanks to goals from Trent Alexander-Arnold, Ryan Gravenberch, and Diogo Jota. Liverpool trails Arsenal on goal difference, with both teams on 74 points and five games remaining, while defending champions Manchester City, who are third on 73 points, still have a game in hand.
A week after Crystal Palace struck Liverpool’s title dreams a crushing blow with a 1-0 defeat, Sunday’s triumph gave Jurgen Klopp’s side new optimism. Alexander-Arnold, making his first league start since February 10, struck a beautiful free kick into the top corner in the 32nd minute, leaving keeper Bernd Leno with little chance. This was the England international’s sixth direct free-kick goal.
Timothy Castagne scored for Fulham just before halftime with a side-footed strike past Alisson. Gravenberch, a summer transfer, restored the Reds’ lead in the 53rd minute of the game when Harvey Elliott capitalized on a sloppy Fulham pass over the center of the pitch. He sent it to Gravenberch, who curled the ball inside the far post for his first league goal.
Jota clinched the victory in the 72nd minute with his 100th English club goal in all competitions, a low shot inside the far post off a ball from Cody Gakpo. The match took place three days after Liverpool was eliminated from the Europa League by Atalanta in the quarterfinals, and Klopp started with talisman Mohamed Salah, Darwin Nunez, and Alexis MacAllister on the bench until they came on as 74th-minute substitutions.
For 80 minutes we played a really good game. I didn’t like the last 10 minutes of the first half and they got the goal. But that’s alright because I loved the second half, Klopp told the BBC. We could show again what we did really well in the first half, we kept the ball, created and scored some good goals. We had some good chances on top of that too. We made some changes and the boys did well, he added.
Meanwhile, Crystal Palace produced a brilliant performance to beat West Ham United 5-2 on Sunday. Jean-Philippe Mateta scored a brace for Palace. Crystal Palace took a healthy lead by scoring four goals inside 31 minutes including a bicycle kick by Eberechi Eze in the 16th minute. Michail Antonio and Dean Henderson scored for West Ham.
