For the Fulham supporters, during Sunday’s 3-1 home defeat to Jurgen Klopp’s Premier League title-chasing Liverpool, it must have felt like the nastiest case of deja vu.
Cast your mind back to early December. As Fulham and Liverpool went head-to-head in a modern Anfield classic, Marco Silva’s side produced some wonderful stuff only to find themselves on the losing side thanks to a moment of genuine top-class quality from Trent Alexander-Arnold and one of the finest displays in his Reds career from Ryan Gravenberch.
History certainly repeated itself this weekend, Alexander-Arnold once again beating Bernd Leno from distance, curling a trademark free-kick into the top corner. And, after Timothy Castagne drew Fulham level, Gravenberch again saved his best for the Cottagers, fizzing home a terrific strike of his own from the edge of the home side’s box.
Alexander-Arnold shines as Liverpool beat Fulham
“The first half was good,” Silva said post-match, via the RedMen TV on YouTube. “I think we were solid. We were in a good shape. It was not a first-half with many chances for both sides.
“They score from an excellent free-kick from Alexander-Arnold, and our reaction was really good. I think we had some really good moments. The result was fair at half-time because I thought we really deserved the equaliser.
“We gave the ball away and then they scored a very good strike, and from that moment I agree the reaction was not so good. (It) was more difficult for us to create chances.”
Diogo Jota’s 72nd minute strike – arguably Liverpool’s finest finisher putting his party piece on proceedings with the third goal in a 3-1 win – felt like a real shaking off the cobwebs sort of moment from a side who’s season appeared to be shuddering to a half after those cup exits to Manchester United and Atalanta, and last week’s shock home defeat to Crystal Palace.
With Man City in FA Cup semi-final action, Liverpool and Arsenal both seized the chance to overtake Pep Guardiola’s treble-winners in the top two spots.
Jurgen Klopp’s side overtake Manchester City
“I liked big parts of the first-half already but, you are right, the second-half was a complete performance, if you want,” a delighted Klopp tells the Liverpool website, his hopes of bowing out a Premier League champion very much alive.
“The start in the game was good. For us, you cannot really explain that. But, for us, Fulham is a tough place to go. I can’t even remember if we won here before, to be honest. We always struggle here a little bit. If we won, I’m pretty sure it was rather lucky than convincing.
“From my point of view, that was the best performance we had so far against Fulham away.
“We won the last game already. Nobody felt that really but we won against Atalanta. It didn’t help but it was still a win. And I thought there’s a good chance we’d make the next step today, and we tried that and the boys did that. It was really good.
“We just played a really good football game, created much more chances than we used – that’s normal, by the way – but could have scored more often. We had one or two tricky situations to sort I think, self-created pretty much when we lost the ball in an unnecessary moment.
“I’m really happy with the performance and hopefully nobody got hurt, not that I heard anything, but that would be great. Then, we’ll see. We have to recover because then we play on Wednesday again.