Tottenham 1-3 Liverpool: Harry Kane injured as Reds win first Premier League game of 2021
Report as Roberto Firmino scores Liverpool's first league goal of 2021 en route to comfortable victory at Spurs; Trent Alexander-Arnold, Sadio Mane, and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg also on target; Harry Kane forced off with injury at half-time
By Adebimpe Isaiah, adexnew24.blogspot.com
Liverpool finally earned their first Premier League victory of 2021 as a second-half double saw them win 3-1 at Spurs, who have more worries over an injury to Harry Kane.
The Reds dominated the opening period at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, but looked to be behind inside two minutes when Heung-Min Son ran through and slotted home - only for VAR to rule he had been marginally offside.
Roberto Firmino gave Jurgen Klopp's side a deserved lead with their first league goal of the calendar year on the stroke of half-time, before Kane, twice seen by the physio before half-time, was substituted at the break. To make matters worse for Tottenham, Trent Alexander-Arnold then doubled the advantage less than two minutes after the restart.
A frantic start to the second period saw Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg quickly halve the deficit with a sweet first-time effort before Mo Salah looked to have added a third for Liverpool on the break, before VAR again intervened to overturn the goal for a Firmino handball in the build-up.
The third would come nine minutes later though, with Sadio Mane sweeping home from a back-to-form Alexander-Arnold delivering a wonderful ball from deep. Mane fired past Hugo Lloris to seal victory, and move the Reds up to fourth in the table.
Liverpool show old quality to see off sorry Spurs
Liverpool's alarming slide in 2021 looked like it would continue in the early minutes in north London, when Son was played through and turned the ball inside Alisson's near post with typical finesse, but eagle-eyed VAR official Jon Moss took less than a minute to overturn the decision when spotting the Korean had been offside before taking the ball.
An end-to-end game was unsurprisingly dominated territorially by Liverpool, with Spurs looking to hit them on the break, but only Mane's burst into the box and a tremendous save that followed from Lloris caused any real chance of note, and even then the Senegal winger would also have fallen foul of an offside call had he found the back of the net.
Instead, the talking point of the opening period looked likely to be Kane's long-running injury concern after an early challenge from Thiago appeared to roll his ankle, but the England captain persevered until the interval - by which time his side were behind.
Henderson's fine pass out of defence found Mane on the left, and his perfectly-placed low ball in found Firmino's late run into the six-yard box, giving the Brazilian the simplest of chances to open the scoring with almost the last kick of the half.
A goal behind and without Kane, Spurs' evening looked to be heading for the rocks when Alexander-Arnold fired home on the rebound when Lloris perhaps made tougher work of Mane's curling effort than he should have, but within another two minutes, Spurs pulled back within a goal as Hojbjerg connected brilliantly with Steven Bergwijn's ball to the edge of the box.
Given the visitors' difficult run of form, a third goal would always be important for them to end their winless run, and Salah soon thought he had it after sweeping home to end a Liverpool counter-attack of old, until Firmino's half-way line handball saw another VAR intervention rule it out.
The visitors would not have to wait long for a third, with Joe Rodon, perhaps still feeling the effects of a clash of heads with Thiago minutes earlier which had required treatment, failing to cut out Alexander-Arnold's diagonal ball and allowing Mane to sneak in at the back post and volley in a third.
Tottenham continued to huff and puff for a way back into the game, but Liverpool's unconventional centre-back pairing of Henderson and Nathaniel Phillips kept them at arms' length as the Reds jumped to fourth, four points and two places above their hosts in the table.
What the managers said...
Tottenham head coach Jose Mourinho: "The performance was totally affected by defensive individual mistakes. The team was very solid. The team was very confident. And in the first half, we made three defensive mistakes, individual.
"The third goal hurts me, because the third goal was a mistake by a kid that played very well. Joe Rodon played very well. So I feel very sorry for him. But I'm very happy with his performance."
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp told BT Sport: "What I saw today was, it's not about shape or form, it was who we are. So that's us. Today's second half especially, that was us.
"It was a massive fight and [we played] football, obviously on top of that. I don't know the numbers but I think apart from a few minutes in the first half, I don't remember they had a lot of the ball. But then they were always pretty quick and counter-attacking and we defended really well. But it's just a good performance."
Man of the match - Trent Alexander-Arnold
What a time for Alexander-Arnold to finally return to form.
Having seemingly lost his sensational crossing ability overnight earlier in January, he was back to his best at Tottenham with a well-taken goal to give them some breathing space just after half-time, before making another for Mane to do likewise not long after.
His confidence seemed back to its normal highs, albeit who knows where from, and no one on the pitch touched the ball more than the young right-back. He didn't have to prove his quality, but he's found a way out of his poor run of form.
Opta facts
- Liverpool have won six consecutive league matches, and three consecutive away league matches, against Spurs for the first time in their history.
- Liverpool have now beaten Tottenham in the top-flight on all seven days of the week, becoming just the third side to have done so after Everton and West Ham.
- José Mourinho has now lost six home league games in charge of Tottenham, more than he has at any of his previous clubs.
- All three of Liverpool's Premier League away wins this season have come in London, with the Reds also winning 2-0 at Chelsea in September and 7-0 at Crystal Palace in December.
- Roberto Firmino's opener ended Liverpool's run of 482 minutes and 93 shots without a Premier League goal, since Sadio Mané scored against West Brom last month.
- Liverpool's Roberto Firmino has scored in five of his last six Premier League appearances against Tottenham, including each of his last three against them away from home.
- Since the start of last season, Liverpool's Trent Alexander-Arnold has been involved in more Premier League goals than any other defender in the competition (21 - 5 goals, 16 assists).
- Pierre-Emile Højbjerg's strike was his first goal for Tottenham in all competitions, in what was his 30th appearance for the north London side.
What's next?
Both sides are live on Sky Sports as part of Super Sunday, with Tottenham travelling to Brighton on Sky Sports Premier League from 7pm; Kick-off at 7.15pm.
Liverpool travel to West Ham hoping to end David Moyes' 100-per-cent start to 2021 earlier on Sunday, live on Sky Sports Premier League from 4pm; Kick-off at 4.30pm.
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