If Liverpool are to gate-crash next season's Champions League, it could still require Ipswich and Leeds to self-combust but, for the time being, Gerard Houllier's renascent team could not be accused of failing to make their presence felt.
By overcoming a woefully inexperienced Tottenham side yesterday Liverpool's eighth game in 23 days propelled them above Chelsea into fifth position with games to spare in their concerted push to re-establish themselves among the elite of Europe.
That, according to Houllier, will be the only way their season can be judged successful, irrelevant of the Worthington Cup triumph and next month's FA Cup and UEFA Cup finals. Attitudes are clearly changing on Merseyside.
Deprived of 11 through injury, Tottenham's manager Glenn Hoddle had little option but to deploy a makeshift side incorporating six players under 22 and three substitutes in Ian Hillier, John Piercy and Steven Ferguson who had never started a senior game.
Though Liverpool may have had the heavier legs Spurs finished with the heavier hearts after Gary McAllister and Robbie Fowler, with a goal apiece in the final 19 minutes, had added to Emile Heskey's early strike.
Willem Korsten had equalised midway through the opening half with his first Tottenham goal but while Hoddle was enamoured with his players' application Liverpool's incisive attacking should have earned them an even more handsome victory.
Certainly it looked that way after six minutes. Heskey has added composure to his other undoubted talents this season and, after Patrik Berger's incisive pass caught the Spurs defence square, his calm finish from the perimeter of the penalty area teed up an absorbing afternoon.
Worryingly for Liverpool, however, it was to be Heskey's last meaningful contribution. Helping out in midfield, his attempt to dispossess Willem Korsten resulted in an ugly tangle that left both players requiring treatment and the England striker on his way to hospital. Preliminary X-rays last night revealed nothing more than severe bruising.
Liverpool were completely dominant throughout the early exchanges but, having camped in opposition territory without extending their lead, the game threatened to take a pendulous swing in the 23rd minute.
Owen set off the chain of events by flashing a header beyond Sullivan from a miscued Berger drive. But when his shrewd improvisation was ruled out for offside, Liverpool's lapse in concentration could have been costly. Suddenly Oyvind Leonhardsen found himself with acres of space on the left. His centre picked out Korsten who lashed a rising shot past the exposed Sander Westerveld.
After that both sides displayed a commitment to attack and though Liverpool Houllier's side possessed a more incisive edge Hoddle will consider that things could have been different, not least when Stephen Clemence ran clear on 68 minutes only to shoot too close to Westerveld.
It was a costly miss for three minutes later Fowler, Heskey's replacement, worked the ball to Owen who scuffed his shot against Alton Thelwell's hand. Having turned down a more vociferous appeal against Tim Sherwood not long before, the referee Barrie Knight pointed to the spot and Gary McAllister finished with the same unerring accuracy he had displayed against Barcelona last Thursday.
Hoddle accused Knight of being swayed by the Kop, but television replays also showed that Owen's earlier "goal" should have stood. Three minutes from time Fowler headed Markus Babbel's precise cross past Sullivan and, victory assured, Liverpool's weary players left the pitch knowing they will have the rare luxury of a rest. "How will you cope without a midweek match?" Houllier was asked. He smiled, but it was through clenched teeth.
Liverpool: Westerveld; Babbel, Henchoz, Hyypia, Carragher (Vignal 64), Smicer (Hamann 54), Gerrard, McAllister, Berger, Heskey (Fowler 40), Owen. Subs Not Used: Murphy, Arphexad. Booked: Vignal. Goals: Heskey 7, McAllister 73 pen, Fowler 88.
Tottenham: Sullivan; Carr, Gardner, Young, Thelwell, Davies (Piercy 78), Clemence, Leonhardsen, Sherwood, Doherty, Korsten. Subs Not Used: Walker, Etherington, Hillier, Ferguson. Booked: Clemence. Goals: Korsten 24.
Referee: B Knight (Orpington).
