In a thrilling Craven Cottage encounter nine man Liverpool were ousted by a determined Fulham thanks to strikes from Bobby Zamora, Eric Nevland and Clint Dempsey.

Liverpool enjoyed the majority of the possession in West London, but they lacked the creativity needed to break through that wall of white shirts.

In the first half, Yossi Benayoun, playing out of position on the left wing, produced an acrobatic volley which rattled the Fulham crossbar, much to the relief of goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer.

However, the visitors were left shell-shocked on 24 minutes when the ball fell to Damien Duff on the left hand side and that he curled in a searching cross which evaded the Liverpool defence and allowed Zamora to tap home from close range.

The Cottagers had failed to register a single shot on Jose Reina's goal prior to this, and they had barely crossed the half-way line, but nevertheless Zamora’s effort had allowed them to get their noses in front.

Rafa Benitez's men struggled to muster the high tempo and urgency they had demonstrated against Manchester United last weekend, and looked bereft of ideas in attack.

But with matchwinners like Fernando Torres in their ranks, no team is safe against Liverpool with just a slender one goal lead.

Andriy Voronin, who was quiet throughout saw his misdirected header cannon off Aaron Hughes into the path of the Spaniard, who swung his right boot to execute a fabulous volley which flew past Fulham goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer, from the edge of the area.

It was Torres' 10th league goal of the season and only demonstrated once more his indispensable value to the club.

After the break, the hosts might have re-taken the lead on the hour mark when Zamora fired over a cross, Zoltan Gera turned and shot but his effort fell straight to goalkeeper Reina.

They did take the lead, however, after 74 minutes and once more it was against the run of play.

Dirk Kuyt, rather foolishly struggled to keep the ball in-play and was robbed by Paul Konchesky. The former Spurs man then took advantage and surged down the left-hand side to cross and Pepe Reina could only parry.

The ball was headed back across goal by Gera and there was Norweigan Eric Nevland to slide the ball into the net.

Things got worse for Liverpool minutes later when Swiss defender Degen was sent off for a dubious lunge on Clint Dempsey.

Incredibly, moments later Benitez’s men were down to nine men when Carragher brought down Zamora. As he was the last defender there were no complaints from the Liverpudlian at his first sending off in seven years.

To wrap up an afternoon to forget for Benitez, Dempsey rolled in the third for Fulham as Liverpool fell apart, desperately trying to chase the game.

Benitez will be scrutinized for substituting Fernando Torres as an injury precaution ahead of the club’s UEFA Champions League game with Lyon, as well as Yossi Benayoun, as soon as The Reds went 2-1 down.

The crisis, that looked to have been averted with last weekend's win over Manchester United, is now very much back on and The Reds have now lost six of their last seven games in all competitions. They remain in fifth place in the league, whilst Fulham will be buoyed by their performance, and victory which moves them into the top half of the table in tenth.

Starting XI's and Star Man:

Fulham: Mark Schwarzer, Aaron Hughes, Paul Konchesky,Chris Baird, John Pantsil, Brede Hangeland, Jonathan Greening, Bobby Zamora, Diomansy Kamara, Damien Duff, Clint Dempsey.

Liverpool: Pepe Reina, Jamie Carragher, Sotirios Kyrgiakos, Philipp Degen, Emiliano Insua, Javier Mascherano, Lucas Leiva, Dirk Kuyt, Andriy Voronin, Fernando Torres,Yossi Benayoun.