LONDON: Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp had just seen his team fall behind after getting outplayed in the opening 25 minutes by a supposed contender for relegation, and he’d had enough.

“WAKE UP!” Klopp barked to his players, his chest out and his teeth gritted.

Liverpool ended up escaping from Craven Cottage with a 1-1 draw against Fulham thanks to a late penalty by Mohamed Salah but it was hardly the stuff of champions from Klopp’s team.

They werent alone, in what has proved a tough weekend for the Premier Leagues likely title candidates. And for Arsenal, too.

Earlier on Sunday, Tottenham, the league leaders, were held to a 1-1 draw by Crystal Palace.

On Saturday, Chelsea lost for just the second time in the league this season, 1-0 at Everton, and the two Manchester clubs played out a drab 0-0 draw at Old Trafford.

If this was some kind of hangover from the teams latest midweek exertions in European competition, then the schedule is only going to get more hectic now English football is entering the festive period where the show goes on unlike with many leagues on the continent.

“I don’t want to make excuses I’ll let you all talk about that and the amount of games players are playing, especially European teams,” Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson said. “We’ve just got to prepare and play whenever were told. That’s all we can do.”

As it was, there was no harm done by the champions for what was one of their sloppiest displays of the season.

Liverpool ends the weekend in second place after 12 games, tied on 25 points with Tottenham, above Leicester City on 24, Southampton on 23, Chelsea on 22, three clubs on 20 and Manchester City on 19, in ninth place with a game in hand over all the teams above them apart from Manchester United in eighth.

Six points separate the top nine, a stark contrast to last season when, after 12 games, Liverpool had 34 points and Bournemouth, in ninth spot, were 18 points behind.

Leicester appear to be mounting a serious challenge after a commanding 3-0 win at Brighton and Hove Albion on Sunday — James Maddison scoring twice and Jamie Vardy once.

Arsenal can no longer be described as a title contender but were another team playing after a European match in midweek. Mikel Arteta’s team fell to the worst defeat of the lot, 1-0 at home to Burnley after going down to 10 men following Granit Xhaka’s red card.

Bobby DeCordova-Reid’s thunderous finish into the far corner to take the lead was no more than Scott Parker’s side deserved as the returning Alisson Becker kept Liverpool in the game before the break.

Liverpool dominated the second-half to pin Fulham back, but needed a penalty to salvage a point when Aboubakar Kamara was penalised for handling Georginio Wijnaldum’s free-kick.

Salah slammed the penalty low and just beyond the grasp of Alphonse Areola, but Fulham comfortably saw out the final 10 minutes to the delight of 2,000 fans at Craven Cottage.

“I think in the first half an hour we could have lost the game, in the last 60 minutes we should have won it. In the end we get a point and that’s it,” Klopp said.

Leicester blew Brighton away inside 45 minutes at the King Power. Maddison was back to his best after a series of injury problems with two brilliant finishes either side of Vardy’s 12th goal of the season.

Arteta watched Arsenal lose at home to Burnley with some of the 2,000 fans present leaving early and some staying to boo after another dispiriting display.

Granit Xhaka was sent off in the second half and things went from bad to worse as Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored an own goal to condemn Arsenal to defeat.

Burnley’s first win at Arsenal since 1974 lifted them above Fulham and out of the relegation zone, to 17th with nine points.

Published in Dawn, December 15th, 2020