• 1
  Liverpool are 7th and still hunting their first Premier League home win of the season - three draws on the spin at Anfield is their longest home winless run since the Covid years, so this one matters more than a home game against the bottom side should. Fulham arrive rock bottom, level on points with Coventry City, having taken nothing from their first three fixtures. For Fulham it's about stopping the rot before the pressure boils over; for Liverpool it's about finally turning home form into three points.
• 2
  History is heavily on Liverpool's side here - they've lost just two of their last 33 home league meetings with Fulham, both 1-0 shocks back in May 2012 and March 2021. So Fulham do have a quiet habit of nicking a result at Anfield when nobody expects it, which is the only thing keeping this from looking like a foregone conclusion on paper.
• 3
  Keep an eye on Mohamed Salah. He's the one player in this Liverpool side who's scored against basically everyone, repeatedly, for the best part of a decade, and with the home crowd growing restless after three straight draws, he's exactly the kind of player who needs one moment of magic to change the mood at Anfield.
• 4
  Liverpool go into this without five first-team players - Conor Bradley, Giovanni Leoni, Hugo Ekitike, Joe Gomez and Federico Chiesa are all sidelined, and Cody Gakpo is a doubt after sitting out a midweek Champions League win with an abductor issue. That's a serious dent to squad depth in both defence and attack, so whoever fills in has a real chance to make a case for a regular spot.
• 5
  Fulham's manager Alvaro Arbeloa is a former Liverpool defender walking back into Anfield with his own job under serious scrutiny - Fulham are winless and pointless after three games, and there's already talk of unrest in the dressing room. A defeat here won't just hurt the table position, it'll turn the heat right up on him, so keep half an eye on the away technical area as well as the pitch.

• 1
  Liverpool sacked Arne Slot in the summer — barely a year after he'd delivered the club's 20th league title — following a difficult follow-up season that ended in fifth place. It's a brutal reminder of how quickly things move at the top of this club.
• 2
  New head coach Andoni Iraola arrives from Bournemouth, where he took a club with a fraction of Liverpool's resources into Europe for the first time in their history. Expectations at Anfield are obviously a completely different scale.
• 3
  Iraola is still unbeaten in charge — draws against Newcastle and Nottingham Forest either side of a win away at Ipswich — but he's yet to win a league game at Anfield, which is the box every new Liverpool manager needs to tick early.
• 4
  Bringing in a manager known for high-intensity, front-foot football after Slot's more controlled approach is a genuine change of identity, not just a change of face in the technical area. Worth knowing if you want to sound like you've actually followed the appointment.
• 5
  Liverpool fans have seen title wins and post-title collapses before, so there's more patience for a transition season than outsiders might expect. The demand right now is progress, not instant perfection.

• 1
  Fulham handed the manager's job to Alvaro Arbeloa this summer — yes, the former Real Madrid and Liverpool right-back — and it has been a brutal start. Three straight defeats, to Chelsea, Sunderland and Crystal Palace, have left them bottom of the table alongside Coventry.
• 2
  Reports out of the club describe genuine unrest — boos at the final whistle against Palace, and pundits already naming Arbeloa as the manager most likely to be sacked first this season. That's a serious level of pressure just three games into a new job.
• 3
  It's a strange one for Fulham, who have spent the last few years as the model of unglamorous, sensible mid-table stability. That reputation is under real pressure for the first time in a while, and nobody at the club looks entirely sure why it's unravelled so fast.
• 4
  They face a Liverpool side still finding its feet under new boss Andoni Iraola, which on paper is a winnable fixture. Fulham haven't looked like a team capable of taking winnable positions so far this season, though, which is the more honest way to frame it.
• 5
  If you want to sound informed, don't just say Fulham are struggling — mention that the dressing room is reportedly uneasy with Arbeloa's confrontational style. That's the actual story here, not just three lost matches.