CHRISTIAN ERICKSEN STRUCK late on as Tottenham maintained their bid for a Champions League berth with victory over Sunderland.
Jan Vertonghen opened the scoring inside three minutes as his deflected effort beat Costel Pantillimon before the former Manchester City goalkeeper denied Eriksen from long-range.
The visitors equalised before the break as Sebastian Larsson curled home a free-kick from 25 yards, though Spurs almost took a lead into half-time as Harry Kane hit the post.
The Black Cats defended well for the majority of the second half, but were undone with three minutes to play as Eriksen’s strike from distance bobbled in.
Leicester City remain rooted at the foot of the Premier League as their recent revival ended with a 1-0 defeat at home to Stoke City on Saturday.
Bojan Krkic scored the only goal of the game in the 63rd minute, following a period of pressure from Mark Hughes’ men, who in truth spent the large part of the game on the back foot.
Leicester had the better of the first-half, but Stoke emerged after the break with added belief and adventure about their play in the second half and got their reward in the form of a fourth away league win of the season.
Nigel Pearson named Leicester’s record signing Andrej Kramaric among his substitutes, following the completion of the Croatian’s move from HNK Rijeka.
The striker was waiting to come on when the crucial goal was scored, and he could not prevent Leicester slipping to a first defeat in five, which leaves them three points from safety.
Meanwhile, Dwight Gayle and Jason Puncheon were on the scoresheet again as Crystal Palace fought back from two down to defeat Burnley 3-2 in the Premier League.
The pair both netted when Palace came from behind to defeat Tottenham 2-1 last weekend, and Gayle’s brace either side of Puncheon’s strike saw Alan Pardew’s side mount a stirring comeback.
Ben Mee’s header – only the defender’s second senior goal - put Burnley ahead inside the opening quarter of an hour, and then Danny Ings struck his seventh goal of the campaign after being set up by Scott Arfield.
The nature of that second goal left Pardew aggrieved as he felt Arfield had fouled Joel Ward in the build-up, but referee Phil Dowd saw nothing wrong as Burnley took a commanding lead.
Palace improved from that point on, however, and pulled one back just before the half-hour through Gayle’s powerful shot.
Early in the second half, Puncheon, who netted the winner against Spurs, struck from distance to equalise before setting up Gayle three minutes from time for the striker to net a dramatic winner and cap a remarkable turnaround.
It was the second time in four days that Burnley had squandered a two-goal lead, after losing 4-2 to Spurs in the FA Cup third-round replay in midweek, and the defeat leaves Sean Dyche’s side a point above the bottom three, while Palace climb to 12th.
Talk about dragging it out, He should move on and stop feeling sorry for himself. Sspecially in the public eye, Hes just not good enough, End of!!!
@David Mc Nally: No footballer should be getting death treats 100% agree. Now I don’t want to be called a victim blamer but there is a few red flags. Why would any footballer allow DMs on Instagram?, the lad who threatened him was about 12 and if he wants to really know what fans can be like he should go play an old firm game as Neil Lennon. I’m not condoning what happened just think there’s ways he could avoid it
Hard to feel sorry for the chap when he’s on £160k a week
@Brian O’Loughlin: he’s on £100k a week but I don’t think your bank balance makes a difference when your wife and children are being threatened over social media
Hard to see him there next season due to bad form and the death threats might just make him want to leave.
@Paul Mallon: I hope to god Klopp sees sense by then. Going by his last 2 years he’ll make him captain.
I can’t help but think if this was about a Man utd player this thread would be packed with the usual tripe.
@Kevin Buston: Ah Stop will ya there’s as many if not more united trolls on Liverpool stories than vice versa.
@Kevin Buston: abit of a stretch there Kevin.
Put your head down and the work in
That black cloud is Liverpool FC son….
Why is this inept Donkey still in the news?
The sooner Klopp moves Lovren on the better.