Liverpool turned up the pressure on Manchester United with a 1-0 victory over Fulham on Wednesday, moving them four points off fourth place in the English Premier League (EPL).
Egyptian forward Mohamed Salah scored the lone goal which even 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 kick, his second in successive games after back-to-back misses, took him to 185 goals for the club.
He is one goal behind Gerrard, while also going fifth on the club’s list of all-time league scorers with 136.
Manager Jürgen Klopp’s behaviour in the technical area was the very model of exemplary behaviour following a Football Association (FA) 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.
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 had given them some problems.
It was a match they eventually went on to win with an added-time goal.
They did set off looking like they might replicate that, with Trent Alexander-Arnold alone having three attempts on goal in the first 10 minutes.
But 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 and 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.
