Sports Mole previews Saturday’s Premier League clash between Liverpool and Fulham, including predictions, team news and possible lineups.
Liverpool return to Premier League action after the postponement of the Merseyside derby when Fulham travel to Anfield on Saturday.
Arne Slot‘s men saw their fixture be the only one in the top flight to fall victim to Storm Darragh, but even without playing, it was still a positive weekend for the Premier League leaders.
Match preview
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Not being in action means Liverpool will have a game in hand over their title rivals for the next two months at least, and that will be a great opportunity for the Reds given that both Arsenal and Manchester City dropped points last week.
With City in complete crisis, their race almost looks run already, meaning Chelsea are now the closest challengers, four points behind Liverpool after their 4-3 win at Tottenham Hotspur.
Arsenal and City failing to win mitigated the impact of Liverpool dropping two points in the final minute away to Newcastle United last midweek – just the third time in 21 games that they had failed to win under Slot.
The Dutch manager’s dream start continued in midweek though, with Mohamed Salah‘s penalty sealing a 1-0 win at Girona, meaning they still have a 100% record in the Champions League after six games.
Returning to home soil will be an even bigger confidence boost, considering the defeat to Nottingham Forest in September remains the only time they have not won across their last 13 at Anfield.
Defensive frailty has raised some questions in recent weeks, but they are making up for that by being clinical in attack, having now scored two or more goals in seven straight Premier League games – their best streak in over three years.
They could still break their Premier League goalscoring record for a calendar year with four games left in 2024, sitting 12 short of the record 88 they put up across 2019.
Fulham are a team they enjoyed great success against in front of goal last season too, scoring seven in doing the league double over the Cottagers, extending their run against them to nine wins in 12 in the Premier League.
Marco Silva‘s men did give them plenty of frights across their four meetings last season though, leading 3-2 with 10 minutes to play at Anfield before a 4-3 loss, while also taking the lead in the first leg of their EFL Cup semi-final.
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Fulham were also one of the six clubs who beat Liverpool at Anfield during their bizarre run of form at the start of 2021, but they are still yet to beat the Reds here in front of a crowd.
That win was also before Silva joined the club, and he has only ever won one of his 11 meetings with Liverpool as a manager, and losing 5-2 at Anfield as Everton manager in 2019 ultimately saw him sacked.
It was his Fulham team that handed Liverpool a big helping hand in the title race last Sunday though, holding Arsenal to a 1-1 draw at Craven Cottage, avoiding defeat late on thanks to a VAR offside call which ruled out Bukayo Saka’s goal.
That took Fulham to 23 points after 15 games, the second-best tally in their Premier League history, only behind the 25 they collected at this point of the 2003-04 season, where they ultimately finished ninth.
Despite that fine points tally, and losing just one of their last seven games, Fulham are still down in 10th, but the congested nature of the Premier League top half means they are just four points behind Man City in the top four.
Liverpool Premier League form:
Liverpool form (all competitions):
Fulham Premier League form:
Team News
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Liverpool are now starting to welcome back many of their important first-team players, with Alisson returning after 11 games out in midweek, making five saves on the way to a clean sheet at Girona.
Diogo Jota is also back in training and in contention to feature, while Federico Chiesa is not far away from a return either.
Alexis Mac Allister was set to be suspended for the derby against Everton, but will now serve his ban here instead, after also missing the Champions League win due to yellow card accumulation.
Dominik Szoboszlai is set to deputise for him again, but Slot has a decision to make in attack between Darwin Nunez and Cody Gakpo, if Jota can not make a full instant return.
Fulham are without Calvin Bassey due to suspension and Joachim Andersen‘s calf injury has seen him miss the last three games, so Jorge Cuenca could make his full PL debut here, having made just three injury-time sub appearances so far.
Harrison Reed will not play until 2025 after knee surgery, while wide man Reiss Nelson was unable to feature against his former club Arsenal last weekend due to a hamstring issue, with Adama Traore coming in.
Tom Cairney will serve the final game of his three-match ban for the straight red card picked up at Spurs, after missing the home fixtures against Brighton and Arsenal.
Liverpool possible starting lineup:
Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Quansah, Van Dijk, Robertson; Gravenberch, Jones, Szoboszlai; Salah, Gakpo, Diaz
Fulham possible starting lineup:
Leno; Tete, Cuenca, Diop, Robinson; Berge, Lukic; Iwobi, Smith Rowe, Adama; Jimenez
We say: Liverpool 3-1 Fulham
Fulham can be one of the most dangerous teams in the division if they are underestimated, but Liverpool have evidently learnt from their defeat to Forest and been ruthless in the Premier League so far.
Playing a day earlier than Chelsea will give Liverpool the opportunity to reinstate their seven-point lead at the summit, and with nine wins in 12 against Fulham in the league, they are well worth their favourites tag.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
