Liverpool v Fulham LIVE - Mohamed Salah gives Reds the lead

That's good news for Fulham, who have threatened to fashion a chance a couple of times.

Palhinha's cynical foul on Jones gives Liverpool a chance to put the ball into the box, but the delivery is not good enough.

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Salah works space in the box with brilliant feet, but then chips wide from a tight angle.

The Reds are winning the midfield battle by some distance. Alexander-Arnold stepping up gives them a numerical advantage, but Fulham's midfield also looks a bit disjointed. Remember they are without Pereira for the first time this season and Reed's absence - he's on the bench - is also apparent.

Route-one stuff from Fulham but it is effective as a direct ball splits the defence to find Vinicius. Van Dijk cannot stop Vinicius getting a shot off and Alisson makes a good save to deny his compatriot.

Jones picks out Salah at the back post, but perhaps expecting Robinson to get a touch Salah cannot take the ball down and the chance is gone. It's all Liverpool at the moment.

A sweeping Liverpool move works the ball to Salah, who cuts onto his left foot then lays the ball off for Alexander-Arnold. A first-time shot follows and the ball bobbles just past the far post.

This time the shot is straight at Leno.

Tsimikas is caught sleeping and a long ball over the top releases Wilson. On his weaker foot, Wilson is reluctant to shoot and instead crosses, but van Dijk puts the ball behind. The resulting corner comes to nothing.

Alexander-Arnold takes the game's first shot, seizing on a loose ball 25 yards from goal, but his effort hits Diaz and harmlessly rolls behind.

Liverpool win a lucky corner - lucky in the sense Fabinho was well offside before they won it but not flagged. Fortunately for the officials, the ball is cleared once the corner is taken.

Fulham, in their traditional colours, get the game started after a standard rendition of You'll Never Walk Alone.

Fulham have just two wins from 35 visits to Anfield. However, those wins have both come within their five most recent trips.

Kick-off is just five minutes away now and the teams are in the tunnel.

Pereira has a fractured ankle and Ream a fractured arm, so both are out for the rest of the season and in Pereira's case likely some of the next campaign as well. Those are two big losses for Fulham as both had started every league game of the season up until today, so worth reiterating.

It is one he has excelled in so far - at least going forward, which has never really been the issue with the player pundits all seem to be on a first-name basis with.

Fulham have lost two games in a row and a very positive first season back in the Premier League is in danger of fizzling out. They are still in the top half, but goals have been harder to come by since Mitrovic began his eight-game suspension. In the six games since they have scored seven times.

Carlos Vinicius has scored only once in that span, a well-taken strike last time out. But outside of Mitrovic, no Fulham player has scored more than four Premier League goals this season and none of the three players who have four goals - Manor Solomon, Pereira and Bobby Decordova-Reid - start today. Given those circumstances, can Vinicius step up?

Salah has scored 20 goals in four of his five previous seasons at Liverpool. He needs three more to reach that milestone this season.

The one season he didn't reach it? It was 2019-2020, when Liverpool romped to the title and he was still their leading scorer.

Liverpool still have slim hopes of a top-four finish, aided by four wins in a row. Coming fifth and making do with a place in the Europa League appears far more likely, however.

Liverpool begin this match seven points behind fourth-placed Manchester United, so can cut the gap to four. But they will have played two more games by the end of the night and then have just four remaining, so time is running out to overhaul the Red Devils. Newcastle United are a further two points ahead but have played the same number of games as Liverpool.

The Europa League is a competition Liverpool have not won since it was rebranded as such, notably reaching the final in Klopp first season in charge but losing to Sevilla. Who else?

These two drew 2-2 at Craven Cottage earlier in the season. Mohamed Salah netted an 80th-minute equaliser, while Mitrovic bagged a brace.

Much of the pre-match talk from Liverpool has concerned Jurgen Klopp and his comments about referee Paul Tierney, the man in black for the Reds' last match. "We won a football game 4-3 in a spectacular manner and the only headlines were about me and I really regret that, it's not necessary and it is not how it should be," Klopp admitted.

Klopp had claimed the way Tierney acted spoke to him when issuing a yellow card was "not okay" and that the official is "against" Liverpool.

In a slightly more conciliatory tone yesterday, Klopp said he "should not have said a couple of things, but lying was not involved". The German has now been charged with improper conduct by the FA.