David Hytner was at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium to witness Liverpool’s long-awaited return to form. His report has landed. You know the pack drill: clickity click! Thanks for reading this MBM. Keep safe and warm. Nighty night!
A mightily miffed Mourinho speaks. “It’s hard to resist so many individual defensive mistakes. It is impossible. Unless you score four goals against Liverpool, which is not easy. But every time we act, the next mistake was coming. The first ball was the beginning of everything. The first seconds, a mistake, and a big chance for Mane. The team was very confident, playing well. We scored a goal but it was offside, by inches but offside, and we were stable. But the goal was a replica of the first chance they had. So between one minute and 48, the same mistake. At half-time we lost Harry, and in the first minute of the second half, another mistake, another goal. Good reaction for 2-1, the team fighting on the pitch, but one more mistake, and 3-1. Very difficult to fight against so many mistakes. Some of the guys are very disappointed, some of them had very positive performances but we were punished by individual mistakes.” He also reports that Harry Kane is “injured in both ankles. To cope with one pain, he probably could continue, but both are very painful and sore, and getting big. He just couldn’t.”
Klopp’s turn. “I am delighted. It was a great game, super-intense. We scored the goals in the right moments. Wonderful goals. The right people scored the goals. All good apart from Joel Matip having to come off. What I saw today was not about form: it was who we are. That was us. Today, the second half especially, that was us. A massive fight and football on top of that. We defended really well. It was just a good performance, and a lot of things I wanted to see. Offensively we coped really well with their formation. Our counter-press was really good. The last line defended really well. I didn’t see it coming, but I was not negative about the second half!”
Trent Alexander-Arnold - out of sorts recently, but back on top of his game tonight - talks to BT Sport. “It’s what we needed. I thought we deserved it. We dominated most of the game. Obviously they’ve had an early goal disallowed, which could have changed the game, but we came here with a plan and executed it perfectly. It was a little bit tough when they scored, but we deserved the three points. Nothing’s really changed, we’re the same team we always have been. Everyone was at it.”
Mourinho and Klopp share a sporting fist-bump in pouring rain. No rancour today. Spurs had their moments, but were well beaten in the end, Liverpool rediscovering their attacking mojo, to an extent that there wasn’t too much pressure applied to their injury-ravaged, cobbled-together defence. The defending champions move into fourth spot, two points ahead of West Ham United, who they play on Sunday. That should be a cracker. Spurs stay in sixth.
FULL TIME: Tottenham Hotspur 1-3 Liverpool
Liverpool’s long wait for goals and a Premier League win comes to an end. They were back to something approaching their best tonight. Rumours of their demise have been greatly exaggerated.
90 min +4: Wijnaldum, the Didi Hamann de nos jours, guards the ball for an age, a masterclass in clock management.
90 min +3: On the touchline, Jose theatrically looks at his watch. It’s not good news.
90 min +2: Spurs knock it around, but Liverpool hold them at arm’s length.
90 min +1: The first of five extra minutes elapses without drama.
90 min: A strange looping backpass by Milner nearly sends Son clear down the middle. Phillips does extremely well to come across and win a last-ditch header to deny Son.
88 min: Origi’s first act is to clumsily trundle the ball out of play for a goal kick. “VAR is the pits,” writes Colum Fordham. “It saved Liverpool’s bacon at the start and then denied them Salah’s wonderful strike. We’d have had a 4-2 classic as opposed to a dastardly dull 3-1 affair. But seriously, it breaks the flow of the game so much.”
87 min: Origi, whose clinical late strike killed off Spurs in the 2019 Champions League final, replaces Firmino.
85 min: A long ball is launched in the hope of finding Bale on the edge of the Liverpool box. Alisson comes out of his area to head powerfully clear. Perhaps they should toss the gloves to Kelleher and play Alisson as emergency at centre-back?
84 min: Jones races down the right. He slips infield to Salah, who makes it to the edge of the box. Jones keeps going on the overlap. Salah tries to release the young midfielder with a cute backheel, but it doesn’t quite come off. Salah cocks his head back in despair. That could have been a fine goal.
83 min: Phillips hasn’t been tested much since coming on. Here he wins an important header, stopping Doherty’s long pass from reaching - and releasing - Son.
81 min: The last roll of the dice for Spurs as Bergwijn makes way for Bale. Liverpool won’t have forgotten about the 2018 Champions League final, you can be sure of that. He couldn’t, could he?
80 min: Liverpool faff around at the back, Alisson, Firmino and Mane over-elaborating. Hojbjerg nicks possession and clips in from the right. Liverpool are extremely fortunate that the cross sails way over Son’s head.
79 min: Ndombele flicks long, hoping to release Son, but there’s too much juice on the pass and it’s an easy claim for Alisson.
78 min: Before the corner, Thiago is replaced by Jones. Alexander-Arnold takes. Hojbjerg clears.
77 min: Alexander-Arnold creams another fine long pass down the right, nearly releasing Salah. Doherty is forced to concede a corner.
76 min: Salah turns on the jets and nearly gets the better of Doherty down the right. The Spurs defender does extremely well to keep up and close down the avenue of attack.
75 min: Liverpool re-establish their control and stroke it around. The clock ticks on. “It appears to me that PGMOL have told their officials not to call anything close and leave it all up to VAR,” suggests Graeme Thorn. “It doesn’t make for a great spectacle, even if the decisions are (eventually) correct. As an aside, the time to call that Firmino handball is before he sweeps it out to the left, and not 20 seconds later when the ball’s in the net.”
73 min: A rare period of extended Spurs possession. Liverpool hold their shape, and eventually Winks is forced to attempt an over-elaborate pass that sails out for a goal kick.
71 min: Firmino dribbles in from the left and tees up Thiago, who attempts to recreate Hojbjerg’s screamer but gets it all wrong, the ball sailing yards wide and high. Maybe his bandage momentarily slipped over his eyes.
69 min: It is tipping down in north London. “Clearly London has got some Trent control issues.” Peter Oh, ladies and gentlemen. He’s here all week. Try the cheese.
67 min: That’s taken a bit of puff out of the Spurs sail. Liverpool stroke it around, not minded to let slip their two-goal lead so quickly again. “Had the ball broken for Tottenham in that wrestle and they scored, I think VAR would have penalised Dier and not Firmino,” argues Gary Naylor. “Seems a bit strange.” Yep, you’re almost certainly correct. VAR’s not very good, is it?
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GOAL! Tottenham Hotspur 1-3 Liverpool (Mane 65)
Yep, they’ve rediscovered it all right. Alexander-Arnold, deep on the right, fizzes a long diagonal pass towards Mane, just inside the Spurs box. Rodon should intercept, but lets it go. Mane meets it first time, and roofs an unstoppable shot into the top left. Liverpool re-establish their two-goal advantage!
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64 min: Salah fights his way down the right, getting the better of Winks and feeding Firmino in the box. Firmino lashes an ambitious effort into the side netting from a tight angle. Whatever happens here, Liverpool have certainly rediscovered their attacking verve.
63 min: A lull at last. Here’s Mary Waltz: “After a series of dull or disappointing big fixtures, we get an absolute cracking, back and forth drama fest. Lovely, skilled football. Plus two very angry managers. What’s not to like, eh?”
61 min: Milner dances down the left and pulls back for Wijnaldum, who pulls a low drive well wide left.
60 min: Fair to say it’s been an exciting start to the second half. The first quarter an hour has flown by.
NO GOAL! Tottenham Hotspur 1-2 Liverpool
Martin Atkinson goes over to review the footage, and chalks the goal off. The ball clearly hit Firmino’s arm, though it had pinged off Dier’s first, as both were pushing and tugging each other. A reprieve for the hosts!
57 min: But this is being checked by VAR, because the ball clanked off Firmino’s hand at the start of the move, as the Liverpool man tussled with Dier.
GOAL! Tottenham Hotspur 1-3 Liverpool (Salah 56)
Thiago, his head bound in white tape, is back, and quickly in the thick of it. He rolls a pass down the left for Mane, who plays a diagonal ball across the face of goal. Thiago dummies, Salah comes in from the right, bashing home from the edge of the box.
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54 min: Thiago has gone off to get his head stitched. Liverpool are down to ten for now.
52 min: A pause, as Rodon and Thiago clash heads accidentally in midfield. That’s drawn blood, the Liverpool midfielder coming off worst.
51 min: Salah very nearly breaks clear down the inside-right channel. Dier comes across to cover and poke out for a corner. Liverpool don’t get their prize, though, as the flag goes up incorrectly for offside.
50 min: Phillips clumsily clatters into Bergwijn, and Liverpool’s inexperienced centre-back is now teetering on the old disciplinary tightrope.
GOAL! Tottenham Hotspur 1-2 Liverpool (Hojbjerg 49)
What a goal this is! Lamela grooves down the left and rolls infield for Hojbjerg, who hits a glorious first-time 25-yarder into the top right! The sweetest of strikes, cut across the ball! Alisson had no chance. Spurs are immediately back in it!
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48 min: London buses, huh. You wait eight hours, and look!
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GOAL! Tottenham Hotspur 0-2 Liverpool (Alexander-Arnold 47)
Mane robs Doherty down the left, enters the box and whacks towards the bottom right. Lloris parries, but only pushes out to Alexander-Arnold, who romps in from the wing and sends a fierce low diagonal shot into the bottom left.
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46 min: Liverpool should be two up after a mere 20 seconds of the half. Salah and Firmino combine, the latter suddenly free in the box. He can’t sort his feet out to shoot and is forced wide right. He cuts back for Salah who blazes over wastefully. No matter, though, because ...
Spurs get the second half underway, having made two changes. Winks and Lamela are on for Aurier and the injured Kane. Liverpool have made a change as well, Phillips coming on for the balsa-boned Matip.
Half-time entertainment. Poor old Newcastle, 94 years without a title and counting. Louise Taylor reports on their current malaise.
HALF TIME: Tottenham Hotspur 0-1 Liverpool
A highly entertaining half. Son thought he’d put the hosts ahead early on, only to be caught offside by the VAR slide-rule. Instead, Firmino broke the deadlock on the stroke of half-time, ending Liverpool’s wait for a Premier League goal that had stretched to eight hours.
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GOAL! Tottenham Hotspur 0-1 Liverpool (Firmino 45+4)
Firmino ends Liverpool’s goal drought! Henderson shovels a pass down the inside-left channel for Mane, who chests down in the box and rolls across for Firmino, who can’t miss from a couple of yards! It had been coming.
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45 min +2: Liverpool press Spurs back in their own box. Thaigo, Robertson and Alexander-Arnold try to find the killer pass, but the home defence stays resolute.
45 min +1: The first of four added first-half minutes goes by without incident.
45 min: Thiago sells Doherty an absurd dummy in the centre circle, and the Spurs defender is slightly fortunate not to go into the book for a confused lunge.
44 min: Robertson’s cross from the left is blocked out by Aurier for a corner. Thiago concedes a clumsy foul, and the pressure on Spurs is lifted.
42 min: Thiago strokes a ball down the middle for Firmino, who immediately shuttles it towards Mane on his right. Mane has a dig but it’s straight at Lloris, who parries. Liverpool haven’t scored in the Premier League for nearly eight hours.
41 min: Alexander-Arnold and Salah one-two down the right, the latter entering the box and trying to find Mane in the middle with a low first-time cross. Mane can’t reach it. For a second, Spurs were in a spot of bother there.
39 min: Spurs are in the wars this evening. Now Bergwijn appears to have some sort of problem, carrying himself quite gingerly at the minute.
37 min: Kane winced when he played that pass, but perhaps the pain in his ankle is subsiding, because he opts to have a proper lash at goal from 30 yards, even though he’s already heard the ref blow his whistle for offside. He’s unlikely to be blootering the ball for fun if there’s a problem, one would imagine.
36 min: Kane comes back on and immediately plays a glorious pass down the inside-right channel for Son. Alisson comes right to the edge of his box to claim. Son claims the catch was made outside the area, but neither ref nor VAR shows interest. Liverpool fly up the other end, and Mane appears to be clear down the middle. However Rodon slides in to tackle, another challenge that had to be perfectly timed. Magnificent defending.
35 min: Kane limps off, though ever the fighter, he doesn’t look prepared to throw in the towel quite yet. He’ll keep going for now.
34 min: Dier is up again ... but Kane has taken another whack to his ankle, this time colliding with Henderson. He looks in real pain, and as the physio has a gander, shakes his head sadly.
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33 min: Robertson loops in from a deep position on the left. Mane extends a leg but is eased away from the ball by Dier. Fine last-ditch defending, but he looks to have twisted his ankle when falling with the Liverpool striker.
31 min: Hojberg tiptoes along the right-hand touchline at pace, under severe pressure from the backtracking Mane. It’s a fine run, but his pass infield, intended for Kane, is no good. A decent battle, that.
30 min: Bergwijn becomes the second player to go in referee Martin Atkinson’s book by cynically impeding Alexander-Arnold as he drives down the left.
29 min: Bergwijn and Doherty combine down the left to earn Spurs a corner. The hosts load the six-yard box with extreme prejudice, but Alisson claims with ease.
27 min: A period of possession for Spurs convinces Klopp that it’s time to give his team their first loud rollocking of the match. In the other dugout, Mourinho remains inscrutably calm.
25 min: Salah very nearly bursts clear down the middle but can’t quite sort his feet out. It’s a good game, this, with both teams looking extremely lively in attack.
24 min: Thiago doesn’t half like picking up needless yellow cards. He gets one here for sliding in recklessly on Hojberg, who was going nowhere deep in his own half.
23 min: Liverpool nearly score a delightful team goal, Henderson driving down the left, Mane one-twoing with Salah and breaking into the box, meeting a dropping ball with an extended leg. The ball’s heading towards the bottom right. Lloris claims sensationally. Mane may well have been offside earlier in the move, but take nothing away from that stop. What a save!
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21 min: A little bit of time and space for Firmino, 25 yards out. His shot flies straight at Lloris. Spurs go long again, and once more Son is sent into acres down the left. He reaches the edge of the box and has a pelt, but that one’s straight at the keeper too. Alisson claims calmly. Not entirely sure how this match remains goalless, but here we all are.
20 min: Spurs launch long down the left. Son gets on the end of it, and very nearly breaks clear into the Liverpool box. He’s eased off the ball elegantly by Matip, who had to get his timing exactly right in the circumstances. Lovely football all round.
18 min: Liverpool are beginning to establish control of the midfield. Spurs seem happy enough to let them have it, to be fair. “I‘m not sure about the Liverpool defence but at least the VAR mouse-clickers have held their lines so far,” quips Peter Oh.
16 min: Liverpool ping it around, stretching the game with probes down both flanks. Spurs hold their shape, hoping to intercept and pounce on the break. A pattern may be setting here.
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14 min: Kane takes a while to get up, but does so eventually. He looks good to continue.
13 min: Kane is down, holding his right ankle. He seemed to take a knock while picking the pocket of Thiago, slipping over as he made off with the ball and clanging into the Liverpool man.
12 min: Son finds Doherty down the left. Doherty slips a speculative pass into the Liverpool box, hoping to find Bergwijn, but Alisson is off his line quickly to smother.
10 min: Alexander-Arnold has been out of form recently, but he looks to have rediscovered his range tonight. He rakes a glorious ball down the left for Mane, who crosses deep. Thiago heads it back across the face of goal. Fabinho, launching himself towards the ball at the far post, goes over. Dier’s nearby, and Liverpool claim a penalty, but it’s a cheeky enquiry. The referee is quite rightly not interested.
8 min: It’s dry and balmy in north London tonight, certainly in comparison to recent teeth-chattering nights in the Premier League. It’s a nice open game, too, with both teams taking turns to stroke it around attractively.
6 min: Shame for Spurs, because that was a lovely move, started with a cute pass out of centre-circle bother by Ndombele to Son. That’s when Son’s heel was flagged offside. He finished delightfully, too, entering the box, giving Alisson the eyes, and firing home at the near post.
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NO GOAL! Tottenham Hotspur 0-0 Liverpool
4 min: Ah hold on. Son is caught offside by the pernickety VAR system. The right decision, but what a business.
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GOAL! Tottenham Hotspur 1-0 Liverpool (Son 3)
Son and Kane one-two down the middle of the park. It’s Son’s turn to romp clear! And unlike Mane, he makes no mistake, entering the box and slotting into the bottom left!
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2 min: The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, all lit up, looks magnificent as ever. Gorgeous glitz. Liverpool dazzle as well, Alexander-Arnold finding Mane with a long pass. Mane one-twos with Salah and he’s free in the box ... but blazes over. What a miss. Doubly so, because ...
1 min: Firmino, Mane and Milner immediately combine down the left, but can’t quite work space to get a cross away. A positive start by the visitors. Speaking of positivity, here’s Matt Dony: “Right. We know that Henderson is an excellent, intelligent footballer. And he’s decent in defence. But. But. He’s NOT actually a defender. And Kane and Son definitely, definitely ARE forwards. As dangerous a twosome as I can think of at the moment. Milner is going to have to do some work to cover.”
Liverpool get the ball rolling ... but only after everyone takes a knee of solidarity, fairness, respect and love. Black lives matter. There’s no room for racism. Kick it out.
The teams are out! Spurs wear their famous lily white, while Liverpool are in their equally well-known red. Always a treat when both teams can wear their first-choice colours, and do so. We’ll be off in a couple of minutes! Excited? Us too! You can count Ian Copestake out, though. “I am trying to wean myself off watching Liverpool in protest at the too-ready acceptance by boss and owners of a battle for fourth place and failing to defend, attack or even zonal-mark our title. I found it disingenuous of boss Klopp to argue that bringing in a centre-back would not help the team score goals! Allowing Fabinho to return to midfield would do exactly that. Anyway, something broke inside.”
A cheery Jurgen Klopp talks to his old buddy Des Kelly. “It will be another intense game for sure. They have a compact formation that we need to find solutions for, and of course a massive counter-attacking threat, but not only, because they can play football as well. So I am pretty sure it will be intense. We played a really good game [at Anfield] though I know Jose saw it differently! [laughs] How we saw it, we deserved it, but that means nothing for today obviously. Everything is possible again.” He reports that Fabinho’s injury “was nothing, really, he just felt something and we had to take him out ... it was not a challenge or an intense situation.”
An extremely relaxed Jose Mourinho explores philosophical matters with BT Sport. “At Anfield we missed chances, and against Liverpool it’s not like you have seven, eight, nine, ten chances to score a couple, you have three or four and have to score two or three. We missed three big chances in the second half to win the game. At the same time, if you make too many mistakes they punish you, and that is what happened. Our objective is to win the game, which is the same objective Liverpool have. They have potential for that, but we also have potential for that. So let’s go for a big game. Liverpool is an amazing team, great coach, great players. What they did in the last three years is amazing. They have had a few bad results, but everybody has in this league. The leader loses to the bottom of the league, life goes on, and tomorrow is another day. That’s why the Premier League is the best league.”
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Spurs make one change to the side named for the 3-1 win at Sheffield United. Sergio Reguilon is unavailable, so in comes Matt Doherty at left-back.
Liverpool’s defensive woes continue. Fabinho is out with a minor muscle issue, so Jordan Henderson takes his place alongside Joel Matip, who has recovered from an injury of his own. Sadio Mane also returns. Rhys Williams and Curtis Jones step down from Sunday’s FA Cup defeat at Manchester United; they’re both on the bench.
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The teams
Tottenham Hotspur: Lloris, Rodon, Dier, Davies, Aurier, Ndombele, Hojbjerg, Doherty, Bergwijn, Kane, Son.
Subs: Alderweireld, Sanchez, Winks, Bale, Lamela, Hart, Sissoko, Lucas Moura, Vinicius.
Liverpool: Alisson, Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Henderson, Robertson, Wijnaldum, Thiago, Milner, Salah, Firmino, Mane.
Subs: Oxlade-Chamberlain, Jones, Minamino, Tsimikas, Shaqiri, Origi, Rhys Williams, Phillips, Kelleher.
Referee: Martin Atkinson (W Yorkshire).
Preamble
There are a couple of ways to look at this game. On the one hand, Liverpool have won on their last three visits to N17, and have beaten Tottenham Hotspur six times in a row, a run of dominance that includes victory in the 2019 Champions League final. On the other, in the season before all that, Spurs were the better side in a 2-2 draw at Anfield and thrashed Jurgen Klopp’s team 4-1 at home. On both of those occasions, Liverpool went into the game with notable defensive deficiencies, as they will today. Omens ahoy!
So here we are, both teams likely to be drawing confidence from history. Both can leapfrog West Ham United into fourth spot with a win; Liverpool would manage it with a draw. Given that the teams are only 18 and 19 games respectively into the season, there’s no do-or-die jeopardy tonight, though a win would work wonders while a defeat might seriously puncture confidence. If this is half as much fun as the exciting and intriguing game at Anfield just before Christmas, we’ll be doing all right. Kick off is at 8pm. It’s on!
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