Alexander-Arnold calls for Liverpool to ‘throw the kitchen sink’ at title race

Trent Alexander-Arnold scored his first goal since December in the win at Fulham. Photograph: Julian Finney/Getty Images

Trent Alexander-Arnold said Liverpool had kept themselves in the title race after a 3-1 win at Fulham that brought the right-back’s first goal since December.

Liverpool pulled level on points with table toppers Arsenal, although Manchester City lie a point behind and have a game in hand on both. Alexander-Arnold admitted that anything less than victory would have effectively given them too much to do.

“I think at this point in the season now [if] you don’t get the result you want you are out of the title race,” said Alexander-Arnold, whose textbook free-kick broke the deadlock. “Today was a very important game for us, seeing Arsenal get their result last night [against Wolves] so it was a big one. The rest of them are big now, five finals. Throw the kitchen sink at it and try to get it over the line.”

According to that logic, Liverpool may not be able to drop any more points between now and the final day. “We have to expect five wins from five now to even stand a chance of being able to pick up silverware in a few weeks,” Alexander-Arnold said.

Jürgen Klopp made five changes from Liverpool’s Europa League tie at Atalanta and was rewarded when two of the players brought in, Ryan Gravenberch and Diogo Jota, scored the second-half goals that saw Liverpool home.

“It’s helped everybody,” said Klopp on being able to rotate his side, who had tumbled out of Europe despite winning in Bergamo and also lost to Crystal Palace last weekend. “For the boys, it’s tough. You have to get through this. I liked the performance, I liked the options. It’s a good squad situation. We need all of them, we need to fight through games and we have the derby [at Everton on Wednesday] to focus on.

“All of these boys have massive quality. Sometimes the momentum is there, sometimes not, but the quality is insane.”

The Fulham manager Marco Silva accepted his side’s second half was “not at the same level” as their offering before the break but was unhappy at several decisions made by the referee Craig Pawson, even though there was no obvious flashpoint. “Overall the performance from the referee was not of the standard as well, many decisions were difficult to understand,” he said.