Liverpool beat Fulham 2-0 to pile more misery on the newly promoted side as they flounder in their attempt to avoid the drop.
Goals from Mohamed Salah and Xherdan Shaqiri was enough to hand the Reds three points and continue their 12 game unbeaten league start.
Left-back Andy Robertson assisted Shaqiri’s goal with a delicious, first-time cross to take his league and European to a club high six – while Salah continued his return to form with a composed finish.
Before the game started Virgil van Dijk was showing off his nutmeg skills, and the Dutch captain produced an excellent performance to help blunt the Cottagers attack.
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Members of the gathered press were happy with the way the Reds performed, with the Independent commenting that Liverpool ‘made light work’ of Fulham’s threat as Jurgen Klopp’s men went about collecting three points in routine fashion.
The broadsheet picked out Robertson, Shaqiri, Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane as the top performers – although it indicated that Roberto Firmino had another quiet day at the office.
Their match report indicated that the Reds had the lion’s share of possession but were ‘sloppy’ on the ball and failed to create clear-cut chances.
The Liverpool Echo picked out Fabinho as the best of the midfielders, although they commented that the Brazilian needs to be more careful with his tackling.
Despite keeping a clean sheet, the local paper reckoned van Dijk and Joe Gomez were average. They called the Dutchman ‘slack’ and said Gomez was schooled by striker Aleksandar Mitrovic.
According to This Is Anfield, Trent Alexander Arnold was also poor and is ‘a long way of his best’. Will we see Nathaniel Clyne stepping up for the Watford game?
TIA also thought Gini Wijnaldum was ‘ineffective’ but Shaqiri was Liverpool’s best player and run around like he had something to prove.
Rounding things off was the Mirror, who were very vanilla in their descriptions of Mane and Firmino’s performances. According to the tabloid, all the African showed was ‘a couple of flashes’ while his Brazilian partner in crime wasn’t at his usual best.