Arsenal's hopes of a Fulham favour dashed as Klopp's Reds run out 3-1 winners

By Alessandro Schiavone at Craven Cottage

Fulham 1-3 Liverpool

Goals: Alexander-Arnold (L), Castagne (F), Gravenberch (L), Jota (L)

Liverpool made a mockery of claims that they have run out steam by convincingly seeing off Fulham 3-1 on Jürgen Klopp's last visit to west London.

Trent Alexander-Arnold's off-the-charts free-kick put the visitors ahead on 32 minutes. But Liverpool were pegged back by a low Timothy Castagne finish on the stroke of half-time.

Second-half goals by Ryan Gravenberch and Diogo Jota sealed the win for the title-chasing Reds who have pulled level again with Arsenal at the top of the pack.

The Gunners banked on London rivals Fulham inflicting potentially terminal damage on Liverpool's title hopes but this game was only ever going one way

Liverpool played with confidence and didn't look like a team that just surrendered Premier League top spot a week ago. Or one that just crashed out of the Europa League.

The ambitious Reds were at it from the start and Luis Diaz's flicked header, following a top-drawer delivery by Alexander-Arnold, was not wide off the mark.

Minutes after conceding a free-kick which Harvey Elliott went on to fluff, João Palhinha didn't learn from his mistakes and cynically brought down Jota this time. And the resulting free-kick was deliciously curled into the top corner by Capital Football's man-of-the-match Alexander-Arnold.

The Portuguese has known better days in Stevenage Road as he struggled to deal with Liverpool's quick transitions through the middle and come out on top against Wataru Endo and company.

Heroically, German keeper Bernd Leno ensured that Fulham stayed in the game as he kept out Cody Gakpo's top-corner artillery seconds after Alexander-Arnold's breakthrough.

You can never write off Fulham at home and Marco Silva's men's recovery was on when Castagne latched onto a lose ball to roll home the equalizer in first half stoppage time.

Liverpool should have been out of sight heading into the dressing room yet found themselves back to square one.

But it took them only eight second half minutes to retake the lead.

Ex-Cottager Elliott, booed throughout, played in Gravenberch after intercepting Alex Iwobi's sideways cross and the Dutchman neatly finished from outside the box.

And with Fulham chasing shadows, Portuguese hitman Jota sealed the three points when he slotted past Leno inside the box.

The hosts' hopes of a late recovery hit a snag when Alisson went down low to keep out Tom Cairney's effort.

Whether it was a lack of nasty streak or little contributions at both ends from the fullbacks, Fulham played well below their standards today.

Up next is Crystal Palace and Silva's men have to be a lot better than today to improve on last season's 10th-place finish.