Following Spurs' thrilling late comeback, Liverpool's Diogo Jota wins the thriller.
At Anfield, Tottenham experienced nightmares once more. A three-goal comeback provided redemption, eliminating the need for ticket refunds, but the ultimate blow came when Liverpool was awarded the victory in the 94th minute thanks to yet another catastrophic error. Spurs are pursued by tyranny while traveling.
Although it seemed ominous when Jürgen Klopp's team saunter into a three-goal lead after 15 minutes, interim manager Ryan Mason was at least spared the scrutiny that fell upon Cristian Stellini following the 6-1 thrashing at St James' Park last Sunday. Mason admitted that there was some apprehension present at that point.
Harry Kane, Son Heung-min, and former Everton striker Richarlison appeared to have conjured an incredible comeback in the 93rd minute when he scored his first league goal for the team. However, a terrible mistake by Lucas Moura allowed Liverpool to recover. 99 seconds after Richarlison's equalizer, the Spurs substitute made a terrible backpass right to Diogo Jota, and the Liverpool striker devastated the visitors with a precise finish past Fraser Forster.
From agony to ecstasy and back again, Spurs’ terrible record at Anfield continues. Liverpool’s defending also left much to be desired but their quality in attack carried them onwards and upwards into fifth, leapfrogging Spurs in the process. But only just. Mason claimed Jota should not have been on the pitch to score the winner having caught Oliver Skipp in the face with a raised boot. Skipp had earlier escaped sanction for a horrible foul on Luis Díaz. Klopp, incensed that Mohamed Salah had not been awarded a free-kick moments before Spurs’ equaliser, celebrated the winner by sprinting up to the face of the fourth official John Brooks. The manager pulled a hamstring in the process and was rightly booked for his disgraceful behaviour. The pain, however, belonged entirely to the visitors.
It took three minutes for Liverpool to breach Spurs’ alleged defence and the flashbacks to begin. Cody Gakpo was too intelligent with his movement and vision for anyone in white to handle and central to all three early goals. For the first, the Netherlands international worked his way into space before finding Trent Alexander-Arnold. The right?back-turned-quarterback floated a pin-point cross to the back post where Curtis Jones, left completely unmarked by Pedro Porro throughout the move, volleyed home his first Liverpool goal since September 2021.
Porro had tracked Díaz into the penalty area even though the Colombia winger was being marked by Cristian Romero. A brainless defensive start was under way.
Luis Díaz puts Liverpool 2-0 up after only five minutes.
It was 2-0 from Liverpool’s next, piercing attack. Salah picked out Gakpo’s smart run with a measured pass behind the toiling Eric Dier and the January recruit swept over a first-time cross from the byline. Díaz marked his first start since injuring a knee at Arsenal on 9 October with an emphatic, acrobatic volley at the near post.
The tortured travelling support found some solace in gallows humour. “We want our money back,” the Spurs supporters sang, before a rendition of “How shit must you be? It’s only 2-0.” That chant was soon rendered obsolete when Romero lunged into a ridiculous challenge on Gakpo just inside the area to concede the most blatant of penalties. The World Cup-winning defender still had the temerity to complain.
Salah had missed his last two spot-kicks against Bournemouth and Arsenal but made no mistake this time, swiping the spot-kick down the middle of Forster’s goal. On his 300th appearance for Liverpool, the Egypt international moved to joint fifth on the club’s all?time league goalscorers’ list alongside Harry Kane
Then, seemingly out of nowhere, the visitors erupted into life and generated enough chances for them to draw even with Liverpool by halftime. After Kane had shot past Alisson, Virgil van Dijk cleared the area in front of his goal line to stop Son from converting a Kane pass. Shortly after being set free by a lovely Skipp ball, Kane volleyed an Ivan Perisic cross through the legs of the Liverpool goalkeeper. Son struck a post after latching onto Dier's long pass, then Dejan Kulusevski blew a wonderful opportunity when clean through.
During the half-time interval a plane circled the stadium dragging a banner that read: “LFC – Sox – Penguins – Same problems FSG Out”. The timing was comical.
Son hit the woodwork for a second time when cutting across Ibrahima Konaté and curling a low shot against the base of Alisson’s left-hand post. Romero struck the right-hand post seconds later when throwing himself at Kane’s delicate cross to steer a volley wide of the Liverpool keeper.
Spurs struck again just as it looked like Liverpool had neutralized the danger and restored control. Son was set free by Romero's expertly weighted pass over the home defense. The South Korean international put his earlier bad luck behind him and defeated Alisson with a nice shot into the bottom corner. Richarlison scored the equalizer after eluding Darwin Nez to sneak in behind Son's deep free-kick and put a glancing header down and over Alisson.
When Moura diverted a long clearance from the Liverpool goalkeeper into the path of Jota, the wild celebrations had just about died down when the game ended. Now it was the home crowd's turn to erupt.
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