Bukayo Saka and Declan Rice react to Liverpool defeat as Premier League title race takes twist

Bukayo Saka and Declan Rice have reacted to Liverpool's defeat to Fulham. Arsenal have been given a major boost to their hopes of snatching the Premier League title after on Sunday afternoon.

Alexis Mac Allister fired Liverpool ahead inside the opening quarter of an hour with a brilliant strike from range before Ryan Sessegnon levelled proceedings. Then, in the space of five minutes, .

Luis Diaz managed to pull one back for Arne Slot's side in the second half, but the Cottagers held on. with eight games still to be played.

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After the games, on . Among the hundreds of fans who flooded the comment section with messages of support, Andreas Pereira said: "Ronaldinho from Nigeria [Nigeria flag, red heart and fire emojis]."

Sessegnon and Calvin Bassey also heaped praise on the former Arsenal midfielder. , who – albeit marginally – pushed the Gunners closer to Liverpool in the title race with his performance.

Speaking to reporters at Craven Cottage, . The Liverpool boss said: "I think there is no reason for us to be complacent.

"We are not No.1 at the moment because we win every game with a margin of three or four goals. I think everyone that has seen our games [knows] it takes us so much effort, so much hard work to win games of football, combined with quality of course.

"The team that won the league in the last four seasons were already 3-0 up at half-time almost every single game they played. That's not the way it is for us, so we are fully aware of the fact we have to compete for seven more games.

"We saw it on Wednesday when we played Everton, it was a close call. Today it was a close call and many times we've been on the right side. Today we were on the wrong side, mainly because of the errors we made."

Slot added: "Everybody needs to be aware – and they are, so actually I didn't even need to tell them – that the only way we can win a game of football is by hard work, 90 minutes [of] constant effort."

A day prior, on Saturday, Arteta was also quizzed on the title race after Everton held Arsenal to a 1-1 draw. The Gunners boss said: "Merit to Liverpool, the way they are winning their football matches.

"I'm talking about a reflection of what happened today, what was really relevant for the score and there is no question that, apart from that, they had nothing. But obviously that changes completely the momentum and the results."