Fulham vs Liverpool: A team for all seasons, Jurgen Klopp's men show their fighting spirit to sink Cottagers

Fulham 1-2 Liverpool: After Ryan Babel cancelled out Sadio Mane's opener, it fell to James Milner to convert from the spot and secure all three points for Jurgen Klopp's men

In glorious sunshine and driving rain, crisis-ridden perennial failures Liverpool continued to bottle the title race by moving two points clear at the top of the Premier League. Goals from Sadio Mane and James Milner moved them to the summit with seven games remaining, and even if the world and his online pseudonym now believes the title is Manchester City’s to lose, the number 1 now sitting next to Liverpool’s name is, if nothing else, a reminder not to believe everything you read on the internet.

Even if it was a good deal less eventful than Liverpool’s last visit to this part of London - a dramatic 3-2 win five years ago sealed by Steven Gerrard’s injury-time penalty - it was probably still a good deal more eventful than it needed to be. Ryan Babel’s shock equaliser with 16 minutes left gave Fulham an unlikely foothold in a game in which they had barely competed. But Milner’s penalty nine minutes from time set Liverpool back on course, and back on top.

They may have played a game more than City, but keeping up the pressure is all they can do for now. If they keep winning - and with games against Tottenham and Chelsea coming up, that’s naturally no guarantee - then City may be in the position of having to go to Old Trafford on Wednesday 24 April needing a win to get back on top. This isn’t over, whatever anyone else may try and tell you.

City, too, can rest easy. Any fears that Fulham, already 13 points adrift of safety, would ease off the gas here proved unfounded. After all, they can’t help being this bad. That wasn’t a weakened team out there. That’s just their team. It’s now 47 days and counting since their last Premier League point, and if there is a slice of good news for City, they have the privilege of visiting this listless, godforsaken side next.

At least under caretaker manager Scott Parker, Fulham have looked vaguely competitive at times, even if their major objective here appeared to be damage limitation. They set out narrow, not committing the full-backs too high, squeezing the gaps in which Liverpool’s front three like to operate. The upshot was that Liverpool had plenty of room to play with on the flanks, and particularly against Fulham’s untried combination of Timothy Fosu-Mensah, making his first start in four months at right-back, and Floyd Ayite, making his first start of the season ahead of him.

And after a few exploratory missions and the odd threatening cross, it felt inevitable that Liverpool’s breakthrough would emerge from that left flank. It came from a breathtakingly simple surge: Andy Robertson playing the ball to Mane, who carved up the wing, slid the ball towards Roberto Firmino on the byline, continued his run into the area, and pummelled the ball home from Firmino’s cut-back.

That should have been the end of it, really. Against a team as toothless as Fulham, a single strike should have been all that was required to put the game to bed and maybe burgle a couple more goals on the counter-attack. But then, controlling games is a skill that has frequently eluded this Liverpool side in the past: witness the Crystal Palace, Leicester, West Ham, Burnley games from earlier this season.

There appears to be a strand of this side’s DNA that believes that if you’re not trying to thrash the life out of a game, you’re not really playing it at all. Tactically, this means committing fully: playing on the front foot, pushing high, not retreating or easing off because of the game situation. Mentally, it can often lead to the sort of decision-making that looks hard to justify in retrospect.

The warning signs were there for Liverpool. After offering little for an hour, Fulham gradually began to come into the game. There was a mini-scare when Ayite’s header past Alisson was flagged for offside, another when a lightning counter ended in Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa’s volley being saved low, Mo Salah the last defender desperately sprinting back to cover.

It was a reminder that for all Liverpool’s dominance, a single-goal lead could be easily unpicked, and so as we entered the final quarter of the game, Liverpool redoubled their efforts in search of a second goal. Divock Origi and Milner replaced Firmino and Adam Lallana. Mane hit the bar with a header. And as Fulham cleared their lines after another sustained spell of Liverpool pressure, Milner had the apparently simple task of hooking the ball back into the danger area and launching another attack.

Ryan Babel's simple tap-in drew the visitors level (Getty Images)

Except the ball went in completely the opposite direction: skewing off the outside his boot, towards his own goal, giving Virgil van Dijk a chase. Perhaps the world’s best defender on current form, van Dijk’s indecision let him down badly here. First he invited Alisson to come for the ball, then headed it against him. Ryan Babel gratefully collected the rebound, slid the ball into an empty net, and refused to celebrate scoring against his former club: a principled stand that would probably have looked a good deal more dignified had he not been wearing a bright-red, close-cropped hairstyle that made him look uncannily like he was taking his 50-metre swimming badge.

As Liverpool’s title challenge disintegrated before their eyes, perhaps it was to their credit that they managed to recover their composure quickly enough to push for a winner. Then again, give it enough time and this Fulham side will always offer you a chance. Here it came, in the most innocuous of fashions: Milner’s hopeful diagonal ball brought down by Salah, Salah’s shot, spilled by Sergio Rico, who then grabbed Mane by the waist as he tried to pounce on the rebound.

Sadio Mane opened the scoring for the visitors (Getty)

Milner atoned for his earlier error by sticking the penalty straight down the middle. And though they had chances to score a third - Gini Wijnaldum curled just wide from 18 yards, Salah capped another curiously off-key performance by shooting straight at the keeper when through on goal - Fulham were broken by that point.

As the whistle blew for full-time, Liverpool’s fans in the Putney End let out a roar of relief. Klopp shook his fist towards them like a bruised but victorious boxer. By now, the afternoon sunshine had given way many times over: first to a drizzle, and then to a torrent, and now again to sunshine. Perhaps the pathetic fallacy was a little too convenient. But once again, Liverpool had proven themselves a team for all seasons.