Liverpool Held to a 0-0 Draw by Fulham at Anfield, Who Collect a First Point

Liverpool's first clean sheet of the season came with no goals at the other end to show for it either. Fulham left Anfield with a point they had gone three straight matches without collecting, holding the reigning champions to a 0-0 draw in a contest that never really caught fire in front of a packed home crowd.

A debut, and a quiet Anfield

Bradley Barcola made his first Premier League start, days after Liverpool's midweek win over Atlético Madrid in the Champions League, and the hosts looked exactly like a team running on legs that had already played a European tie that week. Liverpool had 14 shots to Fulham's ten but only three on target, and four of their attempts were rated big chances missed — more than enough to have won the game on another day.

Fulham's best of the afternoon

Fulham were not at Anfield to sit back for 90 minutes. Víctor Muñoz's effort came back off the crossbar in the second half, the closest either side came to breaking the deadlock, and Álvaro Arbeloa's side finished with four shots on target of their own — as many as Liverpool managed — against a Liverpool defence that had not been seriously troubled in its first three matches of the season.

A club-record fee, on the bench until now

Barcola arrived at Anfield this summer in a £106 million move from Paris Saint-Germain, the second-most-expensive signing in Liverpool's history behind only Alexander Isak, and had been used from the bench in his first three matches. Handed his first start against a well-organised Fulham side that sat deep and broke quickly, the France international found few gaps to exploit — normal enough for a first taste of what a Premier League away side, set up purely not to lose, looks like from the inside.

Different directions in the table

Liverpool went into the round 6th on five points from a win and two draws, level on points with Newcastle United and Everton. The draw takes them to six points from four matches — a solid if unspectacular return that sits alongside a much sharper Champions League start, a 2-1 win over Atlético Madrid in Liverpool's opening league-phase match. Fulham had lost all three of their Premier League games so far this season, including a 2-3 home defeat by Crystal Palace the previous weekend, and sat 19th without a point. This draw is their first of the campaign and the first result of any kind under Arbeloa since he replaced Marco Silva as head coach over the summer.

A tough summer sold as long-term planning

Arbeloa, the former Real Madrid full-back, took over at Craven Cottage in July on a three-year deal after Silva left for Benfica. Three defeats from three to open his Premier League career — at home to Chelsea, away to Sunderland, at home to Crystal Palace — had already put an early spotlight on the appointment. A goalless draw away at the champions, with a point and a clean sheet to show for it, is not the kind of result that ends a slow start, but it is the first sign that Fulham can compete without collapsing at the back, something the 4-7 goal difference from the first three matches had not suggested.

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