After a crushing Cup defeat by Crystal Palace and an agonising night at Arsenal, Fulham fans might have wished for an easier opportunity to end their winless run than a visit from Arne Slot’s champions’ elect this afternoon. Liverpool head to Craven Cottage, where they are unbeaten in their last seven fixtures, needing just eleven points from their final eight games to lift their twentieth league title after Everton held the Gunners to a draw at Goodison Park yesterday.
Fulham’s only win in their last fifteen matches against Liverpool came through Mario Lemina’s magnificent strike at Anfield in March 2021. The Whites have won only thirteen of their 78 matches against the Reds, with the last success at Craven Cottage coming courtesy of a late Clint Dempsey strike in December 2011 on a night that was overshadowed by a red card for Jay Spearing and Luis Suarez’s gestures to those hooligans in the Johnny Haynes Stand. But, despite the obvious disappointment of crumbling to Crystal Palace in the last eight of the Cup and the fact that Silva’s side only really hurt Arsenal in the final twenty minutes, there are some reasons why the Cottagers could win consecutive home league matches for the first time in thirteen months.
The first is that Fulham have already pushed Liverpool to the limit this season. Silva’s side should have won at Anfield in December, especially after Andy Robertson’s early bath. The Whites were fearless in taking the game to their illustrious opponents and there will be no backwards steps this afternoon either after Fulham’s forward line were nullified by Silva’s own tactical switch in N4 on Tuesday. The Portuguese head coach might even been buoyed by the return of Kenny Tete, last seen limping off at Anfield after a rash challenge from Joe Gomez, who could replace Timothy Castagne at right back after four months out. The composition of the rest of the side will be interesting. One suspects Silva will revert to a back four, but which of the centre backs will play because three into two doesn’t go? You could make a compelling case for Jorge Cuenca and Issa Diop to relegate Joachim Andersen to the bench, but Calvin Bassey can also come back in after his poor performance against Palace.
The previously imposing central midfield pairing of Sasa Lukic and Sander Berge have been affording too much space for the opposition to get shots off. The Whites struggled to keep the ball intelligently at times at Arsenal, which suggests this could be an afternoon for Tom Cairney to look after possession and give Fulham some forward momentum. Silva seems to have conceded that you can’t play Andreas Pereira and Emile Smith Rowe in the same position, but I felt for the latter on his return to Arsenal in midweek, having to feature in his fourth different position since signing in the summer. Doesn’t Ryan Sessegnon deserve a start after making such an impact off the bench against both north London sides recently? But why do you play our boy wonder?
Sessegnon’s versatility – which has seen him add marauding right winger to his role profile in recent weeks – can be a curse rather than a pleasing. He isn’t a left back and I wouldn’t ask him to do a job on Mo Salah this afternoon, even if Antonee Robinson’s tendons remain a real concern. Does Alex Iwobi return to the starting eleven to provide the defensive discipline and work rate required with Liverpol’s loaded front line? And who starts up front? There plenty of selection dilemmas for Silva to ponder over his porridge this morning.
Slot will have his own concerns, particularly over whether goalkeeper Alisson passes his concussion protocols and about whom to pick at right back. Northern Ireland international Conor Bradley will have a late fitness test, but Real Madrid-bound Trent Alexander-Arnold and former Fulham transfer target Joe Gomez will be missing. That could lead to Curtis Jones filling in at right back and, on the evidence of Wednesday’s Merseyside derby, the eye-catching England international is no Bobby De Cordova-Reid.
The point Fulham picked up at Anfield in December – after the kind of absorbing contest that is difficult to rationalise – was Fulham’s first in eleven matches against top of the table Premier League sides. Beating Liverpool, who are unbeaten in 26 league games, won’t be straightforward – especially with the sort of talent Slot can count upon. His immediate success has surprised most, particularly when you think about how it would have felt to replace Jurgen Klopp, but the wily tactician has a history of success on the continent – so perhaps it should have been so eyebrow-arching.
Fulham have only mustered thirteen wins in the 78 times this fixture has been played, but there are some memorable ones in there. Perhaps we need to recall the way the Whites shocked Klopp’s side in their first game back in the top tier in August 2022. Maybe the Whites must mainline Dempsey’s desire, given that the Texan scored his first Premier League to secure safety in 2007 and has regularly hit the back of the net against these opponents. There’s the Luis Boa Morte-inspired emotional victory on the death that the Cottage marked the passing of the Maestro or the way Erik Nevland embarrassed Jamie Carragher in 2009.
A defeat wouldn’t be a disaster but it might mean the Fulham faithful would have to put away their passports for at least another season.
MY FULHAM XI (4-2-3-1): Leno; Tete, A. Robinson, Diop, Cuenca; Berge, Cairney; Traore, Sessegnon, Smith Rowe; Jimenez. Subs: Benda, Andersen, Bassey, Castagne, Reed, Lukic, Pereira, Willian, Muniz.
