Premier League: Tottenham Hotspur 3 [Maddison 41; Kulusevski 72, Solanke 83] Liverpool 6 [Díaz 23, 85; Mac Alliser 23; Szoboszlai 45+1; Salah 54, 61]
Well done, boys, good process. Liverpool stretched their lead at the top of the Premier League to four points, having played one game fewer than second-placed Chelsea, with the latest illustration of their remorseless cut and thrust under Arne Slot.
It was an occasion when Tottenham, playing their way, the Ange Postecoglou way, with zero compromises, were taken to pieces. They conceded six but it could and should have been double figures. Time and again, Liverpool sliced through and a prominent detail at the end of a wild occasion was the glaring nature of some of their misses.
In the corresponding fixture last season, Luis Díaz had a goal incorrectly disallowed in the 34th minute at 0-0 for offside even though he was clearly on. It was a monumental muck-up between the officials and the VAR team in a game that Spurs would win 2-1.
Here, Díaz had his revenge, scoring two and running amok. He was not the only star in red. Mohamed Salah got two goals of his own and he seemed to have the freedom of the pitch at times. Liverpool’s other scorers were Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai.
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Spurs were staring at a historic drubbing when Salah scored his second for 5-1 just after the hour and perhaps they will say that they continued to fight. They were able to keep the margin of defeat relatively tight in the context of the yawning chasm that was on display between the teams. James Maddison had scored for 2-1 in the first half. Dejan Kulusevski, who never stopped, and Dominik Solanke got them back to 5-3 before Díaz’s late second. Do not be fooled. This was a humbling for Postecoglou.
Slot, who might have gone to Spurs from Feyenoord in May 2023 only for the clubs to fail to agree a compensation package, had been so effusive about Postecoglou and his approach on Friday as to have people wondering why. One interpretation: carry on attacking, please, and leave those big spaces at the back.
Liverpool’s domination was almost total. Their press was suffocating. Whenever a Spurs player had the ball, which was not very often, he invariably felt the heat. Slot started Díaz in the No 9 role partly because of his remorseless energy, the tone that he sets out of possession.
It was also about what Liverpool did with the ball. They repeatedly threatened to open Spurs up, to get in around the sides with overlaps. Or through more central areas on the transition. Basically, from any angle.
Díaz’s header for the breakthrough was a beauty; he was coiled like a spring, almost side-on, the power and precision on the release too much for Fraser Forster. The vicious delivery from Trent Alexander-Arnold was not bad, either. It was far from being his only wonderful pass. After what happened last season, Díaz was forgiven for stealing a glance across at the assistant referee. He was onside. Then again ...
Liverpool could have scored a couple of goals by then. Salah had a clutch of chances, seeing Djed Spence get in the way once and then again on one of them, hitting the crossbar with another after a bewitching piece of footwork. There was also the moment at the very start when Forster shanked a pass straight at Salah, who dragged wide.
The second goal was of a piece with everything that had gone before, Liverpool with men over on the left. It was Andy Robertson who hung up the cross and Szoboszlai got a break when he went up with Archie Gray and Spence, the ball looping kindly for Mac Allister. He rose to nod home.
It was a shock when Spurs pulled one back. Kulusevski won possession high up off Mac Allister – Liverpool’s cries for a foul were in vain – and Maddison curled in from the edge of the area. The resumption of the natural order was no surprise, Spurs so open after Szoboszlai won a header from Alexander-Arnold’s ball forward. He kept on running. Salah played the pass. Szoboszlai was never going to miss.
Postecoglou did not change his starting XI from the Carabao Cup win over Manchester United on Thursday despite the availability of Destiny Udogie; Spence continued at left back, a huge vote of confidence for him.
Slot, by contrast, had rotated expertly on Wednesday in the Carabao Cup at Southampton, leaving seven key men on Merseyside and winning. He recalled six of them to the starting XI – Curtis Jones was the exception. Liverpool looked sharper, fresher. In Postecoglou’s defence, he was still without eight players.
The game had been framed to an extent by a protest against the Spurs chairman, Daniel Levy, on the High Road in the countdown to kick-off; a couple of hundred diehards set out some banners and chanted aggressively. Inside the ground, the Spurs support watched through their fingers.
Spurs stayed high, caution to the chill wind. Liverpool simply ran through them. It was easy to fear for Postecoglou’s team when Salah made it four after good work by Cody Gakpo. Salah’s second shone a further light on Spurs’ recklessness. Why was Radu Dragusin drawn so far up the pitch to Díaz? Liverpool worked it quickly in behind, Szoboszlai playing the decisive pass.
Moments earlier, Szoboszlai had run through unopposed from halfway on to a long ball from the goalkeeper Alisson. It was too easy. Szoboszlai fluffed that opening. As would Díaz when he was clean through, lobbing high. By then Kulusevski had volleyed in from Solanke’s chipped pass. Solanke’s goal was similarly nice to watch, a fine volley on the spin. Salah made Díaz’s second goal and, crazily, it would have ended 6-4 had Alisson not saved smartly from the Spurs substitute Brennan Johnson. – Guardian
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