Liverpool turned up the pressure on Manchester United with a 1-0 victory over Fulham moving them four points off fourth place as Mohamed Salah’s winner edged him even closer to a Steven Gerrard record.
There was none of the drama or histrionics of Sunday’s 4-3 win over Tottenham in bringing up a fifth successive Premier League victory for the first time since April last year.
Salah’s 39th-minute penalty, his second in successive games after back-to-back misses, took him to 185 goals for the club, one behind Gerrard, while also going fifth on the club’s list of all-time league scorers with 136.
Manager Jurgen Klopp’s behaviour in the technical area was the very model of exemplary following a Football Association misconduct charge for comments about Sunday’s referee Paul Tierney.
He was perhaps making the most of his time on the touchline as he has until Friday to respond to the charges and, having already served a one-match ban this season, the punishment could be much more severe.
Klopp had written in his programme notes that going 3-0 up inside the opening 15 minutes against Tottenham – a match they eventually went on to win with an added-time goal – had given them some problems.
And although they set off looking like they might replicate that with Trent Alexander-Arnold alone having three attempts on goal in the first 10 minutes, they lacked some of the sharpness they had shown at the weekend.
Also, Fulham were also more organised than their fellow Londoners and that kept opportunities down to half-chances at best.
Alexander-Arnold’s advanced position stepping into midfield allowed him to get closer to his opponents’ goal but, unusually for him, he was off target with two attempts with another hit tamely at goalkeeper Bernd Leno.
Salah, whose cross just evaded Darwin Nunez eight yards out, weaved his way past a couple of defenders close to the byline but could not find the target from a narrow angle, while Luis Diaz also had a shot deflected wide.
Liverpool’s mastery of control in the opposition half was almost absolute, regularly winning back possession before Fulham had time to begin the semblance of an attack, but in their own final third it was much less so.
Virgil Van Dijk had to slide in to turn Harry Wilson’s cross behind after the former Liverpool winger had broken into the space behind Kostas Tsimikas, with Carlos Vinicius exploiting Ibrahima Konate’s hesitation to force a good save out of Alisson Becker.
When the breakthrough arrived it was no surprise it came from a counter-press after Nunez had initially lost possession 15 yards outside Fulham’s penalty area.
Tosin Adarabioyo squared a short pass to Issa Diop but the centre-half, back in the team due to Tim Ream’s season-ending injury, dawdled in making his clearance and Nunez was on him like a shot to nick the ball off his toes with the Frenchman’s swing at fresh air catching the forward’s back leg as he went past him.
Referee Stuart Attwell pointed to the spot and Salah scored an identical penalty to the one against Spurs, blasted straight down the middle.
The second half was much of the same, with Liverpool exerting most of the pressure without really pressing home their advantage.
That made their slender lead vulnerable and Alisson had to save well from Vinicius to prevent the equaliser with 13 minutes remaining to keep their slim Champions League qualification hopes alive.
They are, however, still relying on United to drop points as their arch-rivals have two matches in hand, starting at Brighton on Thursday.
Maresca cannot 'smell' a Chelsea title challenge
Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca claims he cannot "smell" a title race, despite his side sitting second in the Premier League table.
The Blues are unbeaten in seven league matches heading into Sunday's clash with Brentford at Stamford Bridge and sit just four points behind leaders Liverpool, who play Fulham on Saturday.
Maresca's side have scored 12 goals in beating Aston Villa, Southampton and Tottenham in their last three league encounters to pull clear as Liverpool's chief challengers, but the Italian continues to doubt their title credentials.
He said: "You can smell that [a title race], you can feel that.
"Probably this is the reason why I said we are not ready, because we don't feel that and we don't smell that in this moment. Hopefully soon we can be there.
"I like to convince myself and convince the players that the only way to fight for something is just to be focused day-by-day.
"When you start to think about 'in two days, three days, one month, two months', it's the beginning of the bad times."
Chelsea are the league's highest scorers, with 35 goals to their name so far this season. They have netted at least three goals in their last three top-flight outings.
Only once before in the Blues' history have they scored three or more goals in four successive top-flight matches, doing so in November/December 1954 under Ted Drake en route to winning the title that season.
Martin embarrassed by Southampton's Premier League points tally
Russell Martin believes Southampton should have more points on the board in the Premier League this season ahead of their clash with Tottenham on Sunday.
The Saints have won just once this season, with two draws adding up to a dismal five points, which leaves them bottom of the standings having lost their other 12 games since promotion.
Southampton are winless in five matches in the top-flight, losing the last two on the bounce, and have a goal difference of minus 20, having conceded 31 goals while scoring just 11.
"We shouldn't be on the points that we are. It is incredibly hurtful and embarrassing to be on five points - we should have more," said Martin.
"But there have been a few too many mistakes and a few too many moments that we haven't managed well.
"We have had disappointments in games and setbacks, but we have to keep trying to grow - to grow as a group, to grow individually and prepare the players for those moments when it is tough and find ways for them to cope emotionally."
They face a Spurs side struggling for form, with Martin saying he has "a lot of respect" for under-pressure Ange Postecoglou.
Spurs have won just one of their last eight matches in all competitions, and are currently winless in five, with the manager coming under scrutiny for his style of play.
Postecoglou's side sit 11th in the table, seven points behind the top four ahead of the weekend, and he is keen to get the basics right to get back on track at St. Mary's.
"We can't dismiss the situation we're in at the moment," Postecoglou said. "We're very limited at the moment what we can do from a team perspective.
"There's a lot of players playing a lot of games, and they're giving their all, but they're going to lack a little bit of sharpness as we cannot give them a rest.
"Within that context, it's about making sure that there's some basics in our game that we push through."
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Southampton – Ben Brereton Diaz
Ben Brereton Diaz has not won any of his 24 Premier League games in spells at Sheffield United (14) and Southampton (10), drawing six and losing 18.
Only Oliver Burke (25) has had a longer winless run from the start of a Premier League career, and it is a streak that the striker will be desperate to end sooner rather than later.
Tottenham – Dejan Kulusevski
Dejan Kulusevski could make his 100th Premier League appearance in this match, with his first also coming against Southampton back in February 2022.
He has 21 assists in the league, with only Son Heung-min providing more for Spurs since his debut (24).
MATCH PREDICTION: TOTTENHAM WIN
Tottenham are unbeaten in their last 13 Premier League games against sides starting the day bottom of the table (W10 D3), since a 1-0 loss at West Bromwich Albion in May 2018. Spurs have scored 42 goals in this run, netting at least three times in each of the last eight.
In fact, Spurs have only failed to score in one of their last 22 Premier League meetings with Southampton, a 1-0 away loss in January 2020.
However, Postecoglou's side have lost 14 of their 33 Premier League games so far in 2024 (W14 D5), just one fewer than they did in 42 games in 2023. They last lost 15+ league games in consecutive calendar years in 2002 (15), 2003 (20) and 2004 (15).
Southampton, meanwhile, have won just one of their last 28 Premier League games (D6 L21), with their 1-0 win over Everton in November their only clean sheet in their last 27 in the competition.
The Saints have also lost just one of their last six home league games against Spurs (W2 D3), going down 5-2 in September 2020.
OPTA WIN PROBABILITY
Southampton – 25.3%
Draw – 22.5%
Tottenham – 52.3%
Alexander-Arnold: Liverpool capable of winning trophies this season
Trent Alexander-Arnold expects Liverpool to win silverware this season after they "sent a statement" with their wins over Real Madrid and Manchester City.
The Reds currently sit top of the Premier League, four points clear of second-place Chelsea, and eight points ahead of reigning champions City with a game in hand.
Arne Slot has made an almost seamless start to his tenure, with Liverpool losing just one of their games under him in all competitions so far – a 1-0 home defeat to Nottingham Forest – while they have a perfect record in the Champions League, winning all six of their matches.
Liverpool are currently on an 18-match unbeaten streak in all competitions and are the favourites to lift the Premier League trophy, with an 82.4% chance of finishing first at the end of the season.
"This is where we want to be [at the top of the table]," Alexander-Arnold, who is in the final year of his contract, told Sky Sports.
"It is still early days, so we can't get too excited. But if you told us this at the start of the season, we'd have massive smiles on our faces.
"We're in a very, very good position, very strong position - more so in the league than the Champions League, because it then becomes knockout football and what you've done so far doesn't really matter.
"We just need to stay consistent over the next few months and put ourselves in the best position possible.
"I think we [can] win multiple trophies. I think that's the level that we're at, that's the level we've shown that we're capable of, beating the best teams in the world."
Liverpool picked up under Slot where they left off under Jurgen Klopp and have scored two or more goals in each of their last seven Premier League games, last having a longer such run between September and December 2021 (11 in a row).
The Reds have scored 76 goals in 33 games in 2024, their second-best average goals per game in a year (2.3) in the Premier League era, scoring at a rate of 2.38 goals per game in 2019 (88 in 37 games).
Slot's side comfortably beat Man City 2-0 in their last home Premier League game, following on from a 2-0 win over Madrid in the Champions League, and Alexander-Arnold believes that could be the turning point.
"I think that was just a statement week for the team, for the club. Probably they are our two biggest rivals in Europe and domestically over the last five or six years," he added.
"I guess we've struggled to overcome them as a team. So, to beat them both in the space of a few days was something that really sent a statement to everyone that we're a real team.
"And whether they wanted to believe it before that or they don't believe it still, it doesn't bother us. We know what level we are. What others want to think about us doesn't affect us.
"We know the quality we've got. We know what levels we can hit. We know we've still got a lot to improve, and we will, and we'll get better throughout the season, which I think is good for us and bad for anyone else."
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