By Carl Markham, PA
Liverpool head coach Arne Slot lost his cool but the returning Diogo Jota retained his with a clinical late equaliser to salvage a 2-2 draw at home to Fulham and extend the Premier League leaders’ unbeaten run to 19 matches.
Andy Robertson’s first-half red card saw the hosts play more than 82 minutes with 10 men but backed by a fevered Anfield atmosphere they made light of their numerical advantage.
They were rewarded for their positive approach as Jota came off the bench after an 11-match injury absence to score in a dramatic finish.
However, the performance of referee Tony Harrington tested the patience of the usually-calm Slot and his third booking of the season means he will serve a touchline ban at Tottenham next weekend.
The Reds head coach had criticised the lack of energy in Tuesday’s Champions League win in Girona but after the sending off his side raised the tempo and their game as they harried and hassled Fulham and were eventually rewarded with Cody Gakpo’s equalising diving header.
Robertson had been culpable for Andreas Pereira’s 11th-minute opener and his attempt to recover from a poor touch succeeded only in bringing down Harry Wilson, which Harrington deemed to be a denial of a goalscoring opportunity even though the ball had rolled to Raul Jimenez who shot over.
The Scotland captain had been at the centre of the action for the short time he was on the field as in only the second minute he was caught by a high boot by Issa Diop who was only booked by Harrington, setting the tone for what was to follow.
But he allowed Pereira to find space at the far post to volley Antonee Robinson’s cross, which the left-back deflected past goalkeeper Alisson Becker for the first goal at Anfield in seven hours and 20 minutes. However, his second mistake was even more costly.
What followed was more chaos than Slot had witnessed in all of his previous 22 matches as a short-lived switch to a back three, with midfielder Ryan Gravenberch dropping back, was quickly abandoned as Joe Gomez moved to left-back and Trent Alexander-Arnold returned to his defensive position on the opposite flank.
The control which Slot demands was lacking with even the mild-mannered Gomez getting into a scuffle with Kenny Tete with both fortunate to escape without cautions, another baffling decision by Harrington.
But with the Liverpool boss maintaining his bold approach, eschewing the option of putting on another defender, Liverpool stepped up the pressure but had only Luis Diaz’s header over to show for their first-half efforts as Sander Berge and Sasa Lukic did a brilliant blocking job in front of back four.
However, two minutes into the second half, Mohamed Salah cut in from the right and curled a cross to the far post where Gakpo scored his seventh in 10 matches, with the Netherlands international then forcing Bernd Leno into a low save.
Salah’s customary instincts in front of goal deserted him when he drove wide in a four-on-two attack and when Liverpool needed their star performer most the Egypt international, who had given Robinson a testing time in the first half, was found wanting.
That miss looked pivotal when substitute Rodrigo Muniz deflected in Robinson’s cross 14 minutes from time and after Harvey Elliott and Darwin Nunez both sent efforts wide, Jota proved his long injury lay-off had dulled none of his predatory instincts by sending Leno the wrong way from the middle of the penalty area.
Alisson’s save from Adama Traore safeguarded the point and with Everton doing their neighbours a favour by drawing at Arsenal, Liverpool stretched their lead at the top to five with second-placed Chelsea hosting Brentford on Sunday.
