MOHAMED SALAH SCORED twice as Liverpool beat Tottenham 2-1 on Sunday to maintain their hex over the London club, returning to winning ways after back-to-back Premier League defeats.
Jurgen Klopp’s men started the match 10 points behind fourth-placed Spurs, with questions growing over their ability even to mount a challenge for next season’s Champions League places.
But they dominated the contest from the start and took the lead in the 11th minute when the impressive Darwin Nunez teed up Salah, who fired into the bottom corner.
The visitors’ intensity dropped as the half wore on but they doubled their lead in the 40th minute when Salah took advantage of a horrendous error by Eric Dier, who headed the ball straight into the path of the Egyptian forward.
Harry Kane pulled a goal back in the 70th minute as the decibel count rose among the crowd of 62,000 in the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium but they fell to a third defeat in four league matches.
Spurs have not beaten Liverpool since 2017 and have now lost seven out of the past nine Premier League matches between the sides.
The result will add to doubts over the ability of Antonio Conte’s men to compete at the top of the table after another damaging defeat against a top-four rival.
Tottenham were missing the services of South Korean forward Son Heung-min, who suffered a fracture around his left eye in his side’s midweek Champions League win against Marseille.
Conte put Ivan Perisic up front alongside England captain Kane but the home side were slow out of the blocks.
Nunez, marauding down the left side of the Liverpool attack, tested Spurs goalkeeper Hugo Lloris from a tight angle in just the third minute and flashed another shot wide minutes later.
The Uruguayan was the provider of Salah’s opener, controlling Andrew Robertson’s pass and feeding Salah, who fired unerringly into the bottom corner.
Tottenham found their feet as the half wore on and were only denied an equaliser when Alisson Becker saved at close range from Perisic after a pinpoint Kane cross.
Midway through the opening period the home fans bayed for a penalty when Ryan Sessegnon went down under a challenge from Trent Alexander-Arnold but referee Andrew Madley waved away the claims and VAR did not intervene.
Liverpool, who had lost their previous two Premier League matches, to Nottingham Forest and Leeds, gave Spurs a mountain to climb when they doubled their lead five minutes before half-time.
Becker punted the ball upfield and Dier got his head to it but mistimed it horribly, straight into the path of Salah, who lifted the ball over Lloris and into the net.
Tottenham raced out of the blocks at the start of the second half.
England defender Dier, desperate to make amends for his error, forced Alisson into a diving save before Perisic rattled the bar.
Klopp’s men remained an occasional threat on the break but Spurs suddenly looked far more dangerous.
They finally made their pressure count with 20 minutes to go when substitute Dejan Kulusevski, who had only just been brought on, set up Kane, who fired home from an acute angle.
The England captain tumbled to the ground after a tangle with Ibrahima Konate but the referee ignored claims for a spot-kick.
Spurs centre-back Clement Lenglet headed over from close range as the minutes ticked down but Liverpool held on to record just their fifth league win of the season.
Nice win. Hair turned gray in the last twenty minutes. Nervy ending.
If TA’s foul on Sessegnon was Emerson on Salah in Anfield it would be a peno 99 times out of 100. Spurs handed that to Liverpool on a plate with that(again) first half performance. Emerson is an absolute cod of a player. Can’t defend, no positional awareness , and not till we were there till Xmas could he pick out a man with a cross.
Liverpool badly need a couple of mobile midfielders as they were over run in the second half.
@Barry Evans: never a pen but if it was TA on Kane then it would be given 100/100 times. Nobody gets more dodgy pens than Sir Harry.
@Barry Evans: wasn’t a foul though was it..?
@Dave Ryan: Stonewall penalty. TAA intentionally shoved Sessegnon off the ball in the box. Cancelo was sent off and a penalty was awarded for the exact same foul yesterday. High boot to the face could have been a penalty late in the game too. No VAR in either case. Imagine Klippity Klopp’s reaction if either decision had gone against Liverpool. Architects of our downfall with silly defensive errors, but deserved a result today.
@Rafa Condron: as a Spurs fan I thought it was..as a Liverpoolfan you didn’t. That’s the argument between fans that will go on till the end of time.
@Paul Gaffney: the var was done on both incidents. High boot didn’t make contact. And Trent had a push but player went down looking for it. There wasn’t much in either incident, if peno was given I would not be surprised. Spurs were unlucky. Last 20 minutes they were excellent.
@Barry Evans: I’m not a Liverpool fan and not in a million years would I call that a pen
@Paul Gaffney: “Klippity Klopp”…good god the cringe!
@Dave Ryan: Some amount of gombeens on this site…….
@Dave Ryan: Good God, the snowflake reaction to a silly reference.
@Paul Gaffney: VAR checked both and found neither was a penalty, I suggest you should watch the game back and listen to the commentary where it was actually mentioned that VAR were checking
@Barry Evans: what foul ffs. Trent put his hand across him and he dived.
@Barry Evans: Million % penalty ! push on the back in the box! ffs trent!!
@Paul Gaffney: “snowflake”…Good god the cringe!
@Michael McGrath: Fair enough. Game was on mute unfortunately, so we all missed the VAR check reference. Seemed anonymous at the time.
@Tom McDermott: Arm on the back. Player was going away from goal. It wasn’t a foul – player went down far too easy. He could have stayed on his feet, the ball was going out of play either way.
@Rafa Condron: if your saying a player going down to easily is not a penalty then there would be very few penalties, prob just ones for handball, or Rugby tackles if your McTominey. Don’t think Trent’s or Cancelo’s was a penalty but if one is given then there will be questions if the other isn’t given. Saying that, IF the one today was given TAA was never getting a red.
@Cormac Flanagan: De Bruyne dived in the Man City match – nobody is talking about that. Cancelo was a professional foul – last man and made enough contact for the foul to be given, he was sent off as professional foul. The game is far too fickle. Ref was right this time not to give a penalty. But I wouldn’t be complaining if he gave it either.
@Rafa Condron: once he gave the penalty against Cancelo, it was a red too as he was the last man. If they had given the penalty against Trent, he wasn’t last man. But I’m saying if Cancelo’s was a penalty for a shove in the back, so was Trent’s. Weather the man goes down easily or not is irrelevant, because most players go down at the slightest touch.
@Cormac Flanagan: No. Cancelo was all over Wilson, tripped him and everything. Far different challenge. Wilson was in control of the ball and goalward bound. Trent leaned into Ses’s back and he went down, and the ref must have thought he went too easy. The ball was going out of play on Ses. It wasn’t smart from TAA, he didn’t need to do that and take the chance. But it was far different from Cancelos.
And De Bruyne dived and got a peno. No consistency from Refs.
@Rafa Condron: I’d say go back and watch Cancelos penalty again. Ball played through and fulham player(smartly) played the ball across Cancelo. Only contact between both players was the shove in the back. No trip. No all over him. Anyway as i said in my first comment. Neither should have been penalties. But thats the rub of the green. This week it was for Liverpool. Next week it may be against them.
@Dave Ryan: pool blinkers as usual
@Cormac Flanagan: I’ve watched. He pushes a d catches his legs.
@Cormac Flanagan: And therein lies the real problem – players going to ground if touched by a feather. If more yellow cards were issued for faking fouls then maybe we’d see less VAR & a better game.
@Rafa Condron: Huge difference between ‘an Arm on the back’ and a fully fledged push. Take off your blinkers and go again……
‘Player went down far too easily’…..Jesus wept, of course he did, following a ‘push/shove’. Anywhere else on the pitch (or any other team), that’s a free kick all day long.
@Paul Gaffney: be best if you put yourself on mute for a while.
Great stuff and great results day. Clawing our way back step by step
Just in from what was a super duper sunday,the utd fans were out in force-you know the ones with the new jersey every start of the season and never been to a match in their lives.Anyway a strange thing happened after utd got the nuts kicked outta them-they all turned into spurs fans with a few shandies on board.So easy to wind up,ah brilliant craic altogether.Super sunday alright!!!
@John Arsey: not a Utd fan but how old are you?
@Mike Kennedy: are you sure??,i’m old enough to still have the craic pal,maybe you need to lighten up a bit?
Last season ..pen on jota ..kane defo red card .short memories ..sing ur chaz and dave songs all day long
@Alan Plunkett: mind the gap there Alan. Still miles behind us hon
@Alan Plunkett: yeh royal Emerson did same to jota. And Kane was a defo red. But don’t always get the decisions.
Didn’t deserve to lose that but when you have the same old players making the same stupid decisions for 5/6 years what can you expect. Infuriating we let teams get ahead before deciding to play too. Maybe with Romero, Kulusevski, Son, Richarlison all fit we probably have the firepower to get over the line. Referee was beyond atrocious too, such a shame that’s consistently a factor. Need some fullbacks too!
@Sam Murray: so a different team and a different referee and you might have got something out of it? ??
@Rafa Condron: wouldn’t have taken that much at all, maybe just one of Perisic’s chances to go an inch inside the post or one of Bentancur or Doherty to get on the end of Kane’s flick. Or to be given a fairly stonewall penalty, Fabinho’s swipe on on PEH at the edge of the box etc etc… but sure thems the breaks
@Sam Murray: or when it was 2-0 and if Darwin or Salah had scored those chances it could’ve ended 4-0. You’re talking through ifs and buts lad
@Sam Murray: so a different team, a different referee , and if they’d scored their chances, and 8 instead of 9 on the lotto you’d have won it …
@Sam Murray: and IF Nunez shot had gone in and not hit the crossbar, it would have been 3-1 ffs. Listen to yourself. If spurs had of scored 2 goals and Liverpool had only scored one, spurs would have won. Amazing isn’t it ?
@Johnny Honest: loving the whining and whinging by all the spuds over Liverpool biased decisions. ,.. Makes the victory even sweeter. Couldn’t care less if they’re right or wrong,.. 3 points bagged, and spuds maintain their atrocious record against the reds. Hahah
51 comments on the United article, who’s the Kings I ask, who’s the Kings. Mind the gap.
@Aidy McBride: 51 comments and you posted 8 of them, it’s a shrinking gap and we will be above ye by January.
@Denis Ryan: look I’ve caught one already, the line is only in the water 5 minutes. Mind the gap.
@Aidy McBride: grasping at straws a bit there methinks-pop goes your little bubble?
@Aidy McBride: No trophy since 2017, 19+6 > 20+3. Forever in our shadow, mind the trophy gap.
@Denis Ryan: klopp gives hugs. Bedtime for you sweetheart
@Aidy McBride: Sweetheart, I’m flattered but you are not my type.
@Denis Ryan: thank god for that
@Aidy McBride: Poor Aidy just needs someone to drop down to his level
@Aidy McBride: Keep going Aidy, we are nearly up to the 51 comments you were so proud about.
Lősęr
@Aidy McBride: Aidy, the Liverpool article regular.
I wish I had nothing to worry about.
They got lucky. Stupid mistake for the 2nd goal. Spurs pushed on at the end and could have got the equaliser with more composure in front of goal. Liverpool defence looks shaky under pressure, they won’t be as lucky next time.