Nervy match at Craven cottage today. I had a bad feeling about this when I woke up, and when the rain started pelting down at 1-0, with Liverpool failing to ice the match, I thought "this is ripe for a howler."
And so it proved.
It wasn't a terrible performance by Liverpool, all things considered, but the defensive mix-up will take the headlines. Alisson take the lion's chare of the blame but really it was a series of errors that led to the goal - Milner shanks the ball backwards, Virgil's header puts the keeper under a bit of pressure and then Alisson makes the wrong decision and pop, bang, lovely for Babel.
I was hoping this would be a chance for Liverpool to boost their goal difference - but while Fulham did nothing in midfield and relatively little on the break, their back four actually defended pretty stoutly for much of the match - US international Tim Ream had a pretty good match, among others.
At the end of the day, it's three points and Milner could afford to joke about conceding the goal in the mix zone afterwards. Man City are still in the driver's seat and will probably win the title, but Liverpool are at least keeping them honest.
In a way they are hugely underrated, but on the other hand there is nothing underrated about their 7th place position in the league - every club above them is a heavyweight and they have fully earned their spot.
