• Fulham were well worth their victory
  • Liverpool suffered their first away defeat of the league season
  • Mohamed Salah drew another blank

Fulham became just the second side to earn a Premier League victory against Arne Slot's Liverpool as they emerged with a 3-2 win at Craven Cottage on Sunday afternoon.

Almost seven months after Nottingham Forest counter-attacked their way to a 1-0 win at Anfield, Fulham took the game to Liverpool. Undeterred by Alexis Mac Allister's blistering opener, the Cottagers scored three goals in 14 first-half minutes.

Luis Diaz halved the deficit in the second half but Fulham valiantly clung to all three points.

How the game unfolded

Fulham boss Marco Silva demanded a performance "close to perfection" from his out-of-form Cottagers. They delivered.

Liverpool's suffocating midfield double act forced the visitors into an early lead. Ryan Gravenberch was first to a loose ball in midfield and Mac Allister was second on the scene, striding forward before drilling a crisp drive into the top corner. Yet, Fulham romped into the ascendancy thereafter.

The Reds were ahead for less than ten minutes before Ryan Sessegnon controlled a half-volley into the bottom corner, lapping up a miscued clearance from emergency right-back Curtis Jones. Fulham's devilish press also proved to be too much for Liverpool's other full-back.

Andy Robertson was guilty of a trio of blunders in the buildup to Fulham's second goal, eventually inadvertently deflecting Alex Iwobi's strike beyond his own goalkeeper.

Rodrigo Muniz capped off a first-half blitz with Fulham's third goal in 14 breathless minutes. The Brazilian forward managed to tame a ball dropping out of the cloudless London sky and spin past Virgil van Dijk with the same scandalous touch. Even while tumbling to the turf, Muniz slipped his shot between Caoimhin Kelleher's open legs.

Unimpressed with his starting XI's attempts to chip away at the deficit, Slot cycled through four substitutes with more than a quarter of the contest remaining. Two of those arrivals combined in the 72nd minute as Conor Bradley drove infield before laying the ball off for Luis Diaz to prod beyond Bernd Leno.

Diogo Jota forced an excellent save from Leno and Harvey Elliott crashed a curling effort off the crossbar as Fulham's backline dropped so deep they were almost shoulder-to-shoulder with the fans behind their goal. Yet, their resolve would not be punctured, ensuring that Liverpool's title coronation will have to wait another week.