Liverpool beef up title bid with last-gasp win at Fulham

London: Steven Gerrard scored a last-minute penalty as Liverpool followed up their weekend thrashing of Arsenal with a gritty 3-2 win at last-place Fulham in the Premier League on Wednesday to revive their title campaign.

Gerrard stroked home the spot kick after Sascha Riether floored Daniel Sturridge with a rash challenge in the 90th minute.

After routing Arsenal 5-1 at Anfield on Saturday, Liverpool had to come from behind twice for a precious victory at Craven Cottage. Liverpool remained fourth in the standings but reduced the gap on league leaders Chelsea to just four points.

"We deserved the victory after all our hard work. It was important we kept our mentality, we showed resilience and broke them down in the end. It's too early to say that (we're back in the title race, no-one is getting over excited," Sturridge said.

Liverpool's Kolo Toure gifted Fulham the opening goal as the defender sliced the ball into his own net from Kieran Richardson's cross.

Sturridge levelled before the interval, slotting home off the post after Gerrard had played a superb defence-splitting pass into his path.

Richardson put the Cottagers back in front in the 63rd minute, only for Philippe Coutinho to equalise in the 72nd and skipper Gerrard to coolly convert from the spot.

"Steven Gerrard is peerless in situations like that. He showed brilliant composure," Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers said. "It was a great result. We've had to show character to come from behind twice. A brilliant victory."

Liverpool named an unchanged starting line-up for the match against the struggling London team, which is four points adrift of safety.

Fulham made a positive start, forcing Simon Mignolet to parry Ryan Tunnicliffe's shot away in the second minute. But the Reds keeper was powerless when Toure sent the ball into his own net six minutes later.

Toure then accidentally bumped straight into referee Phil Dowd and sent him tumbling but the official was unscathed.

Liverpool strike pair Luis Suarez and Sturridge struggled to link up throughout the first half, while Fulham missed the chance to double their lead when Darren Bent headed just over the bar in the 34th.

Suarez looked sharp toward the end of the match, with his best effort being a 35-yard free-kick that flew just wide.