AT 3pm, the planets seemed to be aligning for Liverpool. They kicked off having conceded just two Premier League points at home against a team who had taken just one on their travels.

Even Steven Gerrard’s injury-induced absence appeared to be more inconvenience than calamity and, assuming all went to plan at Anfield, there was the prospect of a return to the English summit were Chelsea to obligingly stumble against Newcastle United.

Could it all be so simple? Of course not. Liverpool never got going; Fulham rolled their collective sleeves up and trundled back to west London with the point their gutsy performance warranted.

The man upon whom the match pivoted took no part in it. England’s trojan performance in midweek suggested they can do without Gerrard. Liverpool’s limp effort yesterday suggested they cannot. Rafael Benitez’s gamble of leaving Xabi Alonso on the bench and giving Lucas his third league start of the season misfired horribly. That Jimmy Bullard, Fulham’s own midfield fulcrum, pulled most of the strings for the visitors merely hammered home the point.

“A bad day,” admitted Benitez. “We didn’t have enough energy, we didn’t pass well, but what happened to Chelsea and Arsenal means it could have been worse.”

So as The Kop snoozed quietly, Liverpool were at their most somnambulant, but for all their acute travel sickness, Fulham were not without pluck.

With Danny Murphy back where he would still like to belong, Bullard at his most impish and Mark Schwarzer unbeatable, Fulham were not in the mood for their traditional beating.

After 29 minutes, Robbie Keane found himself without defensive company seven yards from a gaping goal after Fabio Aurelio’s cross had deflected off Bullard and then Fernando Torres, but Schwarzer flung himself at the Irishman’s feet to preserve parity. Keane and his team would not have a better opportunity.

Were the afternoon going to plan, Keane’s miss would have inevitably heralded a Liverpool renaissance. Instead, Fulham marched forwards, earned a plethora of corners and were foiled by Reina’s flying save from Bullard’s goalbound curler after Bobby Zamora had made mincemeat of the usually impassable Javier Mascherano.

For all their luxurious individual gifts, Keane and Torres are hardly instinctive soulmates, a 21st-century Keegan-Toshack, and as Keane drifted out of the game, Torres attempted to win it solo, cutting in and unleashing a finger-stinging drive that Schwarzer expertly fielded.

Fulham did not panic. Brede Hangeland and Aaron Hughes were rocks in central defence, the hungry Johnson and Zamora were more aware of each other than Torres and Keane and Bullard was their ebullient heartbeat.

Schwarzer again saved athletically, this time from Dirk Kuyt after the otherwise impeccable John Pantsil had allowed Albert Riera time and space to cross, but even the fillip of four mysteriously added minutes failed to generate the last-ditch assault that has served Liverpool so well this season – and Fulham emerged deservedly unscathed.

“We’re modest enough to understand that 0-0 at Anfield is a good result,” admitted Fulham manager Roy Hodgson. “And we might have shaded it in the first half.”

Star man: Jimmy Bullard (Fulham)

Referee: M Halsey

Attendance: 43,589

LIVERPOOL: Reina 6, Carragher 6, Arbeloa 6, Agger 6, Aurelio 6, Mascherano 6 (Alonso 64min), Lucas 4, Kuyt 5 (El Zhar 81min), Riera 5 (Babel 78min), Keane 5, Torres 6

FULHAM: Schwarzer 8, Hughes 7, Hangeland 7, Pantsil 7, Konchesky 7, Davies 6, Dempsey 6 (Gera 84min), Murphy 7, Bullard 8 (Baird 90min), Johnson 7, Zamora 7