FULHAM VS. LIVERPOOL
| Sunday, January 4th |
Premier League | Craven Cottage
3:00PM BST/10:00AM EST
Liverpool are traveling back down to the capital to take on Fulham. After ringing in the year with dull and uninspiring goalless
draw against Leeds United, the Reds are hoping to pick up their first victory of 2026. They currently sit in fourth place halfway through this season, 12 points behind leaders Arsenal and three ahead of Chelsea.
Without Mohamed Salah, Liverpool found it tough to create chances on Thursday against the newly promoted Leeds. They’ll need to find some inspiration, likely through Hugo Ekitike, to get the ball into the back of the net.
Despite the disappointment of their recent draw, Liverpool have still put together an eight-game unbeaten streak in all competitions over this notoriously difficult festive period. This has helped them crawl their way back into the Champions League spots after their sharp fall off a cliff in the autumn. So while there is improvement, dropping two points and hoping your competition does worse is an unsustainable way to remain competitive.
Fulham won two in a row to end 2025 before their most recent draw against Crystal Palace. Marco Silva’s 11th place Cottagers are, in reality, only three points off of Chelsea and six behind the Reds themselves.
Predicted Liverpool Lineup (4-2-3-1)
Alisson; Frimpong, Konate, Van Dijk, Kerkez; Gravenberch, Jones; Szoboszlai, Mac Allister, Gakpo; Ekitike
Florian Wirtz has a hamstring issue. While it’s not enough to warrant injury leave, he’s being carefully monitored to ensure his continued health. It’s unlikely that he will start on Sunday, but he may be on the bench. Other guaranteed absentees for Slot’s team are Alexander Isak, Giovanni Leoni, and Mohamed Salah, and likely Wataru Endo and Joe Gomez. Not the worst January injury list I’ve seen, but also not the best.
Fulham have been hit harder by the AFCON departees. They’ll be without Samuel Chukwueze, Alex Iwobi and Calvin Bassey because of it. As for injuries, they’re down Josh King, Ryan Sessegnon, Kenny Tete, and Rodrigo Muniz.
The Managers Have Their Say
Arne Slot: “I expect a different game against Fulham because their manager and when we’ve played them and what I’ve seen from them, and they play a home game, so I think they will try to attack a lot and want to have the ball a lot. At least that is how I know their manager, so it probably will be a much more open game and so then we have to show in games like that we don’t concede a lot as well.”
Marco Silva: “I think they started with six wins in a row, and everybody was saying they are the same but with some changes. They kept the same winning mentality, the kept the same quality and they kept winning football matches. But then they had the bad run, which isn’t normal for them and then, of course, it had a massive impact on their points and position in the table. We can all agree it is not a normal run for them. I think we will see them back as contenders and fighting for the title.”
The Officials
Referee: Craig Pawson. Assistants: Lee Betts, Matthew Wilkes. Fourth official: Sam Barrott. VAR: Andy Madley. Assistant VAR: Craig Taylor.
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