Premier League Roundup: Liverpool slumps to 6th successive home defeat against Fulham; Tottenham eases past Palace

Liverpool continues to falter at Anfield in the Premier League as the defending champions lost a 6th successive game at home to Fulham on Sunday.

Klopp made seven changes after Thursday’s defeat to Chelsea but still couldn’t hit the ground running as their horrendous home run continued against the relegation-threatened Cottagers who took a vital step to boost their survival hopes.

Mario Lemina punished slack defending from Mohamed Salah to rifle in his first Fulham goal on the stroke of half-time as Scott Parker’s side were rewarded for their adventurous approach at the home of champions.

Sadio Mane who came on as a substitute for the Reds clipped the crossbar in the second half while a crucial stoppage-time clearance from Joachim Andersen prevented Liverpool from salvaging a point as they failed to win for an eighth consecutive game at Anfield for the first time since 1958.

Watch the highlights of the match below

Stats and facts from the match (Backed by Opta)

• Liverpool have lost six consecutive home league games, their longest ever such run, while they are the first side to lose six in a row on home soil in the Premier League since Huddersfield Town in February 2019 (seven).
• Liverpool’s six league defeats at Anfield in 2020-21 is their most in a single campaign since 1953-54 (also six), when the Reds finished bottom of the top-flight.
• Fulham are the first newly-promoted side to win away at Liverpool in the Premier League since Blackpool beat Roy Hodgson’s Reds in October 2010, ending Liverpool’s run of 30 home league meetings with such opponents without defeat (W24 D6).
• Liverpool are now winless in their last eight home games in the Premier League (D2 L6), only embarking on a longer winless top-flight run at Anfield once before – 10 games between October 1951 and March 1952.
• Excluding penalties and own goals, Liverpool have failed to score with each of their last 115 shots at Anfield in the Premier League (including 16 today). Since we have exact times of shots available in the competition (2006-07), this is the longest such scoreless run of shots on home soil by any side.

Tottenham 4-1 Crystal Palace: Double strikes from Harry Kane and Gareth Bale seals stylish Spurs victory

Harry Kane was feeling it on Sunday night, setting up two goals for Gareth Bale and getting on the end of two himself as a clinical Spurs side beat their London rivals Crystal Palace 4-1 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Bale continued his resurgence by scoring the opener, tapping home Kane’s cross in the 25th minute, but Palace hit back out of nowhere on the stroke of half-time through Christian Benteke’s superb header.

Spurs got back in front after the break, regaining their lead through Bale who has now scored his sixth goal in six games, before Kane got in on the act with a brilliant double.

First, Kane curled a stunning, sweeping effort into the top-left corner from the edge of the box, before Son put it on a plate for him to secure his second.

The Spurs’ talisman Kane has now been directly involved in 40 goals in 36 games in all competitions this season (23 goals and 16 assists), the most of any player for a Premier League club.

The result means Spurs move up to sixth, just two points off the top four with 11 games remaining, while Palace are 13th, eight points above the drop zone.

Watch the highlights of the match below

Stats and facts from the match (Backed by Opta)

• Only league leaders Manchester City (35) have earned more points at home in this season’s Premier League than Tottenham Hotspur (24).
• Tottenham’s fourth goal was their 100th in all competitions this season, becoming the second club in Europe’s big-five leagues to reach that tally in 2020-21, after Bayern Munich (106).
• Tottenham’s Gareth Bale has scored in each of his last three home appearances in all competitions, the first time he has done so since September 2018 for Real Madrid (four in a row), and first time for Spurs since May 2013.
• Harry Kane was the first Spurs player to score 2+ goals and make 2+ assists in a Premier League game since Jurgen Klinsmann v Wimbledon in May 1998 (4 goals, 2 assists).
• Tottenham duo Harry Kane and Heung-Min Son have now assisted one another for 14 Premier League goals this season, breaking Alan Shearer and Chris Sutton’s all-time competition record of 13 set in 1994-95 for Blackburn.