Andrew Robertson was only on the pitch for 16 minutes, but was the lightning rod for several flashpoints in the carnival of chaos that was the first half.
Inside the opening minute the Scotsman was left flattened after a very heavy tackle from Issa Diop, with the Frenchman becoming the first of four Fulham players to be booked in the opening 45 minutes.
With 10 minutes on the clock, Fulham took the lead as Antonee Robinson rampaged on the overlap and stood up an enticing ball to the back post, where Andreas Pereira acrobatically turned the ball into the back of the net as his shot took a slight deflection off Robertson.
Liverpool’s left-back would complete a torrid quarter of an hour when he was sent off for denying Harry Wilson a goalscoring opportunity.
The Scottish international’s woes were all self-inflicted, as he had originally miscontrolled a cross-field pass and allowed the former Reds’ man to steal possession and head towards goal.
After such a dramatic shift in the situation of the game, neither team truly settled into their new roles, as the home side struggled to launch a meaningful counter-attack and Fulham never used their man advantage to grab control of the game.
Any hope of this being a straightforward day for the league leaders was long gone, but immediately after the HT break Liverpool made it clear they were far from out of the game.
Just two minutes into the first half, a teasing Mohamed Salah cross allowed Cody Gakpo to ghost into the back post and head home from six yards.
Anfield had belief once more, and as the game opened up due to both teams having ideas of finding a winning goal, Salah blasted wide after a quick counter attack from a Fulham corner.
With the game in the balance, Marco Silva’s men found a killer move to re-take the lead.
Alex Iwobi found Robinson, who was once again on an attacking adventure from the left-back position, and his pull back was scuffed home by substitute Rodrigo Muniz.
However, once again the Reds found a way back into the game, as Jota’s smart turn allowed the Portuguese forward the space to smash a low drive beyond Bernd Leno.
Despite the man disadvantage Liverpool piled forward to find a winner, with Virgil van Dijk taking his place as a makeshift centre forward, but it was Alisson who was forced into a save from Adama Traoré in the last act of a breath-taking game.