Liverpool suffered just their second defeat in 31 Premier League games as Fulham triumphed 3-2 at Craven Cottage on Sunday.
After Alexis Mac Allister had opened the scoring with a rasping strike from 20 yards, the Cottagers responded through Ryan Sessegnon before the hosts further punished defensive frailties from the league leaders through Alex Iwobi and Rodrigo Muniz. It means the Reds still need 11 points from their final seven games to mathematically confirm themselves as champions of England for a 20th time.
The ECHO, as ever, was in London to run the rule over proceedings. You can find our live blog, match analysis, big-game verdict and player ratings all alongside reactions from Arne Slot and Marco Silva on our dedicated Liverpool FC pages. Our colleagues from the national media were also on hand to give their own considered takes on a surprise defeat for the runaway leaders. Here's how they view things at Craven Cottage.
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The Times' Paul Joyce writes: "Perhaps it was the glorious sunshine, coupled with Arsenal’s failure to fully keep the pressure up the previous day, but the visitors played for 45 minutes as if they were on the beach and the title had already been won.
"They leaked three goals against a talented Fulham side and, despite an eventual improvement, could not restore parity to squander the chance to become only the fifth side in English top-flight history to go an entire season unbeaten away from home.
"For Slot, this was a first league defeat on his travels since his Feyenoord team lost to FC Twente in October 2023. And so, it remains 11 points that are needed from seven matches to clinch a record-equally 20th league title. There is still not a heap of jeopardy, but this was the kind of display that spoke openly to Liverpool’s frailties.
"They were, from a defensive point of view, a shambles and that includes everyone, not simply a back four culpable of more individual errors inside one half of hapless football than in the previous eight months of the season combined."
Barney Ronay, of The Guardian, says the result flies in the face of the theory of a weak Premier League. "Where does this stuff come from? Perhaps from boredom, the need to fill the rolling news hours. Perhaps from years of stratification masked by title races where two teams peak at the same time, thereby retaining a sellable product, despite the fact the same two teams winning every week doesn’t actually suggest a strong competition.
"There are a lot of questions here. Why is three promoted teams with good players struggling to win a game taken as a sign of weakness, not strength? Perhaps Newcastle’s Carabao Cup glory should also be downgraded because the quality has never been so low. Dan Burn, throw your medals in the bin.
"In reality the league is notably strong this season, the mid-tier better than it has been for years, as it should be with vast broadcast income. Fulham, Bournemouth, Aston Villa, Brighton, Brentford: these are excellent teams. Five English clubs are still in Europe.
"There is a kind of boomerism nostalgia at work here, a sense of where-is-my-great-English-football-of-yesteryear. What we’re really talking about is an absence of major brands, no United, no Spurs, no City. Tell you what, music is rubbish now too. When was the last time the Eagles made an album? There was a band. Chelsea with John Terry. Proper football.
"Slot is the most wronged party in all this. Here he still looked waspish and well-groomed, like the energetic mayor of a small French town about to cut the ribbon on the regional harvest festival. And his impact so far is hugely impressive. Winning the league in your first season by improving players. No major signings. Doing it all with the eternally startled Darwin Nunez as your back-up striker."
The Mirror's chief football writer, John Cross, pens: "This was supposed to be another win ticked off on Liverpool’s march to the title. Instead, we got a crazy, madcap free-for-all when Liverpool surrendered their 26 game unbeaten run in the Premier League. Their first defeat in 204 days.
"And no wonder Fulham’s fans and players celebrated like they had won the cup because no-one could quite believe it as Fulham were brilliant and Liverpool were so poor. Liverpool are still 11 points clear. They still need only four wins to clinch the title. But they were so sloppy, they made so many mistakes and their defending was shocking.
"Maybe it was a few chickens coming home to roost because they have not been as good in the past few weeks as they were earlier in the campaign. After all, they have gone out of the Champions League and lost the Carabao Cup final. But they have still carried on winning in the Premier League because no-one else has been very good.
"But the wheels came off this time. And the only consolation is that no-one - Arsenal and the rest - are remotely close or good enough to apply any degree of pressure."
Kieran Jackson, of The Independent, writes: "Who saw this coming? The 27,000 at Craven Cottage certainly didn’t, such was the state of utter stupefaction in the stands on a spring afternoon to remember in south-west London. Fulham were both dazzling and dogged and, indisputably, deserved winners. For Premier League champions-in-waiting Liverpool, though, it was simply a day to forget. One to write off. By extension for their defence, the opening period saw an utter implosion from all corners.
"But here’s the thing: it should not matter. Liverpool’s terrific league season so far has given them a huge margin for error. Their 11-point buffer to Arsenal in second with seven matches to go is still a near-insurmountable advantage and it’s extremely feasible that they could still win their second league title in 35 years by the end of the month. But their pride took a hell of a kicking here on the shores of the Thames.
"Their 26-game unbeaten run in the Premier League? Gone. Slot’s undefeated away league record since taking charge? Wiped out. Ultimately, in a defence still without the injured and seemingly Real Madrid-bound Trent Alexander-Arnold, it might have given Slot a lesson, a reminder, of where reinforcements are needed in the summer window. For Andy Robertson, it may well be an error-strewn display versus a team he was sent off against in December, which forces the Reds to act in the transfer market."
The ECHO's verdict reads: "If there is to be any redeeming feature to one of the worst performances of Arne Slot's time at Liverpool, it will be that this should be enough to refocus minds ahead of the Premier League's final weeks.
"Having suffered just a second defeat of the campaign here at Fulham - the first away from home - any suggestions that the wheels are coming off this title charge should be treated with disdain.
"But having been so comprehensively swept aside down by the River Thames during a tortuous 45 minutes for Slot, he will know he will need to give a flea in the ear of two or three to make sure such a lethargic displays don't become commonplace between now and May 25.
"It would be unfair to be too critical of a side who were experiencing just their second loss in 31 Premier League games but the manner of their performance here in a 3-2 defeat, specifically the first half, was alarming. And it will be enough for Slot to remind anyone coasting towards their summer break that the league title is not won yet."
