How did Liverpool do that? No, seriously. Having been outplayed for large periods, Steven Gerrard's penalty dramatically won this game in the 91st minute. Rene Meulensteen's new-look Fulham team, so impressive at Old Trafford on Sunday, put in a second impressive performance here, and really deserved better. As they stepped from the field at full-time, Liverpool knew they had been in a game.
That they still emerged with all three points was a testament to the tenacity of Daniel Sturridge, who has now scored in his last eight games. Luis Suarez was a little short of his standard, but still played well by anybody else's. Challenged to come back from behind twice, Liverpool's blue-chip players delivered.
And yet as long as Kolo Toure is lining up for the opposition, it seems you will always have a sniff. West Brom had benefited from his largesse two games ago, when he rolled the ball directly into the path of Victor Anichebe, who went on to score. Not satisfied with an assist, Toure took the more direct route to goal this time round.
The move began with Lewis Holtby, who played a sublime low pass into the path of Kieran Richardson. Richardson's low cross from the left was not hit cleanly. The ball scuttled across the goal area, whereupon Toure waddled across to whack the ball clear. So far, so mundane.
But at the critical moment, Toure stumbled. The ball sliced off the outside his right boot, looped past a scarcely credulous Simon Mignolet, and gently hit the net. An own goal. On BBC Radio 5 Live, Mark Lawrenson suggested that Toure "could not do that again if he tried", although the experience of this season suggests he would have given it a ruddy good go.
To watch Toure for the rest of the half was a strangely bathetic experience. Immediately after the goal, his first act was to berate the turf, as if to say: "Now, why would you want to go and do a thing like that?" Thereafter, he was a quiet but grimly menacing presence in his own half, like an overflowing kitchen bin that everyone knows needs to be emptied sooner or later. Some players respond to an error by hurling themselves into every challenge, as if on a personal crusade to make good. Toure did the opposite. He decided to cut his losses.
The trouble is, he kept finding himself in the action. Running back during a Fulham counter-attack, he barged straight into referee Phil Dowd, who naturally went down heavily at the first hint of contact. Later, after passing the ball straight out for a throw-in, Martin Skrtel gave him the sort of look no man never wants to see from Martin Skrtel.
While Toure was fighting his own private battle with his demons, Fulham were winning the more relevant battle in midfield. Now there is a phrase you could scarcely imagine reading about Fulham during much of 2013. But here were William Kvist and Steve Sidwell, assisted by the buzzing Holtby, actually pushing Liverpool back, cutting off the supply to Suarez and Sturridge.
They had chances, too. Darren Bent's knock-down found its way to Holtby, who rapped a first-time shot off his left metatarsals that only just went wide. Bent headed over. Holtby dragged a shot wide. Liverpool were reeling; Steven Gerrard scuffed a clearance. You sensed Fulham needed a second goal to reward their surprising assurance.
And then, just like that, Liverpool scored. It came without warning. It was quick and deadly, and all the more beautiful for that. Sidwell and Gerrard both slipped over in the centre circle as they tried to recover a loose ball. Gerrard recovered his balance first, and as he did, spotted the diagonal run of Sturridge before squeezing through a ridiculous pass with the outside of his right foot.
Sturridge steadied himself before curling the ball around Maarten Stekelenburg, off the post and in.
It felt like the pivotal moment, for surely, surely Liverpool could not be as passive in the second half as they had been in the first. The same went for Suarez, who began the second half with redoubled vigour, hitting the post with a ripper from 16 yards.
But just as Liverpool had scored almost on a whim, so too now did Fulham. From a throw-in on the right, Sascha Riether swung in a deep and hopeful cross. Clearly not trusting Toure to deal with it, a sprawling Skrtel almost tried to kung-fu kick the ball clear, but succeeded only in scraping the ball across goal, where Richardson swung a gleeful right boot through the ball from two yards.
Fulham were ahead for nine minutes. John Arne Riise tracked Philippe Coutinho as he received the ball from Sturridge, but then inexplicably backed off as Coutinho drifted in from the right. Dan Burn spotted the danger, but too late. Coutinho slammed the ball home from 18 yards.
The closing minutes were spellbindingly frantic. Fulham had a couple of set pieces, but when they retreated to defend against a scampering Sturridge, a tired Riether threw out a leg. Clear penalty. Gerrard stepped up and smashed it. What a finish, and in more ways than one.
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