Liverpool Works Harder Than Expected at Craven Cottage

It's not like Liverpool thought all they needed to do was toss their boots on the pitch against Fulham and collect three points.

They knew that'd put them back on the Premiership's top perch again.

But the Cottagers bottled up, played for pride, and damn near shocked Jürgen Klopp and his rampaging Reds. Only a stoppage time penalty for saved them from skulking away with only one.

Instead, that 1-2 result for the 'Pool hardly tells the story.

 

Fulham forced the action right from the kickoff, launching shots from distance, but couldn't really threaten Alisson Becker because ... well ... they're Fulham.

Dudes are buried in the darkness of relegation territory with no hope of survival for a reason, and Liverpool should be winning matches like this on a bad day.

So, they scored a goal and thought they'd restored order in the universe. It cam in the 26th minute when Sadio Mané literally got the ball rolling to Roberto Firmino. The Brazilian striker walled it back to him, and the Senegal international fired a heatseeker past goalkeeper Sergio Rico:

 

The Reds controlled possession from that point on, but feisty Fulham kept foiling their finishes.

Then, in the 74th minute, substitute James Milner attempted to clear the ball in the midfield, but it ended up as a back pass. Virgil van Dijk and Alisson obviously had never seen Cool Hand Luke ...

 

... and paid for it.

Van Dijk -- for non-Dutch speakers, it'spronounced van dike -- headed the ball back to the 'keeper, who Alphonse-&-Gaston'd it with Ryan Babel:

 

This is surely how Fulham drew it up in their game plan.

Unfortunately for them, stoppage time ran a tad too long for their interests. Mané was held inside the area by Rico so obviously that the referee had an easy call. Reds captain Milner stepped up, and Fulham went down in flames for the 22nd time this season:

 

 

Thus, the 'Pool's back on top ...

And one of the better title chases in recent memory goes on.