Were you not entertained? That was the question posed by Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou after his team beat Manchester United 4-3 in the Carabao Cup last Thursday.
Yes we were and indeed we were once again here in North London. This was, particularly towards the end, a quite extraordinary game of football and this great modern stadium has now witnessed 23 goals in its last three games.
But that’s where the good news begins and ends for Tottenham. For the truth is that they were well beaten here by Arne Slot’s rampaging league leaders, just as they were by Chelsea two weeks ago. Late goals can flatter teams and they did here just like they did a fortnight back.
Liverpool were so far superior over the course of the game that it was quite startling at times. They led 5-1 with half an hour left and that was when some Spurs fans decided to go home. At that point the smart money would have been on Liverpool to score six, seven or eight. Where that would have left Postecoglou, heaven only knows.
As it was, it was Spurs who scored a couple. Briefly the mood changed and Tottenham must be the only place in the country where the home team can concede six and still hear themselves being roared on with five minutes left.
So, yes, this was raucously entertaining once again. If you have a ticket for a Tottenham game over the coming weeks, stick it in your sock and make sure you use it.
Liverpool thrashed Tottenham 6-3 to go four points clear at the top of the Premier League
Mohamed Salah scored twice as Liverpool repeatedly cut through Tottenham’s defence
It was a brutal 90 minutes for Ange Postecoglou as the pressure was heaped on the Australian
However, Spurs were outclassed and outrun for the most part. Liverpool were magnificent overall. At times it was pertinent to wonder if they had played better this season and this sets them up well for the Christmas and New Year period.
Mo Salah scored twice to east past the great Billy Liddell in the Liverpool scoring charts and played with a hunger and a desire that simply terrifies defenders. The Hungarian midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai was not far behind him and scored a goal of his own while Luis Diaz – denied a goal cruelly by the mother of all VAR mistakes here last season – managed to grab two.
The other goal – Liverpool’s second – was nodded in by Alexis MacAllister and the way the goals were shared was indicative of a complete team performance only marred by two late lapses of concentration.
Spurs – down on bodies and in need of some more experience in the ranks – looked a tired and stressed football team here. They only came alive once humiliation beckoned. Postecoglou will continue to seek solace in rhetoric about flair and ambition but he will know he has real problems. His team are eleventh and heading south.
Liverpool, by way of contrast, are the real deal, the best team in the country, and by half-time had managed 13 shots on goal. The only surprise was that only three of them had gone in.
The leaders had been utterly dominant and the only thing that had ruined what would have been a perfect opening 45 minutes had been a mistake from MacAllister that had handed James Maddison a goal out of nowhere when the score was only 2-0.
Liverpool, able to make changes after their midweek win in the Carabao Cup, were energetic, decisive and hungry. Spurs – man for man the same as the team that beat United here on Thursday – looked tired, leggy and rather anxious. When you are in that kind of mental and physical condition, Liverpool are the last team you want to face.
Slot’s team could actually have scored in the third minute and that pretty much set the pattern for the first hour of the game. Spurs goalkeeper Fraser Forster – traumatised perhaps by two errors with his feet in the win over United – flunked his first examination here, passing the ball straight to Salah on the edge of the home penalty area. Salah took his shot early which was understandable. But as the ball struck the side netting he may have noticed Szoboszlai unmarked to his left. Had Salah passed the ball inside, his team-mate surely would have scored.
Liverpool were not to be denied, though. They were in rapacious mood and maybe the only surprise was that it took them until the midway point of the first half to score the first goal.
Salah sensed opportunity up against Spurs left-back Djed Spence. The Tottenham player actually began the game well but the concentration levels required to face the best forward in the Premier League are enormous and over time Salah began to find space and cause problems.
Spurs looked to counter when they could. Postecoglou’s team will always be dangerous on the break. But they couldn’t command enough of the ball to build any kind of sustained pressure and when they didn’t have it Liverpool found it far too easy to play through the middle of them.
Forster saved from Salah in the eleventh minute after a sublime Trent Alexander-Arnold chip played him in and then Szobolszlai’s follow up was blocked. Cody Gakpo then shot over after a Diaz run set him up before Salah sent the three defenders the wrong way on the right side of the penalty area to slam a shot against the bar and over.
Five minutes after that, with Spurs yet to properly threaten, Liverpool did score. Alexander-Arnold advanced into space down the right and when he whipped a cross into the area, Diaz timed his run perfectly off the back of Radu Dragusin to stoop and head low into the corner of the net.
It was a super goal and everything Liverpool deserved. Soon after, when Diaz had a low effort saved by Forster, Liverpool were averaging a shot every two-and-half minutes. Not bad for an away team.
The next one they registered – a header – went in. This time the cross was from Andy Robertson on the other side. Szoboszlai challenged two Spurs defenders on the edge of the six-yard line when we may have expected Forster to come out, and when the ball looped up MacAllister arrived to head it in from close range.
If the first goal had been a good goal, this was a messy one. On the side line Postecoglou looked a little haunted. His team didn’t look like responding. They looked tired and edgy. But after Alisson as required to hold a low Pape Matar Sarr volley from 20 yards in the 41st minute, the home team actually scored.
MacAllister had time to control the ball 30 yards from his own goal but his touch was heavy and when Dejan Kulusevski robbed him, Maddison picked up the pieces to curl a good goal low to Alisson’s left from a few yards closer to goal.
Could this goal out of nowhere change the game? For a minute or so we wondered but then Salah read Szoboszlai’s header from a hacked Alexander-Arnold clearance earlier than anyone and ran clear before feeding the Hungarian with a neat reverse ball. Szoboszlai, excellent all game, took a touch to steady himself and then beat Forster comfortably to effectively seal the game before it was even at the midway point.
Tottenham, booed off by a minority at the interval, had only one hope and that was to score next. But they didn’t. They were competitive for the first ten minutes of the second half but then Robertson won the ball just outside his own area to enable Liverpool to go the length of the field through Diaz and Gakpo. When the Dutch forward pulled the ball back from the byline, Spurs had two half chances to clear but couldn’t and Salah picked up the pieces to score.
Spurs were now in mortal danger of embarrassment and knew it. Three minutes later Szoboszlai was able to run clear on to a straight forward Alisson punt and when he rounded Forster only the side netting prevented him scoring Liverpool’s fifth before we had even played an hour. Then, ten seconds beyond the hour, Liverpool did score again as they cut through Postecoglou’s team down the left and converted another goal with ease as Szoboszlai cut the ball back to Salah.
Both second half goals resembled five-a-side goals. This was men against demoralised and disorientated boys and we still had half an hour left. In the 63rd minute – as some Spurs fans headed for the exits – Alexander-Arnold delivered from distance and Forster touched the ball over.
Utter and abject humiliation beckoned but it didn’t arrive. Not quite. Liverpool’s substitutions took away some of their rhythm and when Dominic Solanke lifted a pass in to Kulusevski in the 73rd minute, the Swede volleyed it in.
Fair play to Spurs for keeping going and to their fans – the ones who remained – for the way they continued to back them. Only a Postecoglou team could reach the end of a day like this and still believe and when Brennan Johnson beat Alexander-Arnold in the air at the far post with seven minutes left his header looped beyond Virgil van Dijk to be scooped in by Solanke on the stretch.
Briefly – just briefly – Liverpool’s players looked a tiny bit stressed. This would be some lead to throw away. But within two minutes they broke on Tottenham to snuff out any kind of recovery. This time the move developed down the right and when Salah played Diaz in on the angle the Colombian drove low across Forster in to the corner.
Salah’s brace saw him become Liverpool’s fourth highest goalscorer in the club’s history
Luis Diaz had put the Reds ahead with a diving header from Trent Alexander-Arnold’s cross
Alexis Mac Allister made it two as he nodded home past Fraser Forster from just yards out
James Maddison pulled one back but this game was a brutal 90 minutes for Tottenham
Dominik Szoboszlai got in on the act moments later as Arne Slot’s side purred throughout
Spurs sit 11th in the Premier League after the weekend’s action, eight points off the top four
Salah’s first goal saw him tap home from yards out following a goalmouth scramble
He slotted home his second after Szoboszlai’s unselfish cut back when bearing down on goal
Dejan Kulusevski (R) and Dominic Solanke (C) pulled consolation goals back for Spurs
Diaz added the gloss on the remarkable game as his strike ensured the Reds won 6-3
