I’m so made up with this. Absolutely buzzing. If we hadn’t won it would have been a massive travesty as Spurs deserved nothing from this game. It blows my mind that some ‘neutrals’ seem to have bought into the Mourinho spin about how well Spurs played.
We’ve seen countless teams come and do what Spurs did, but none of them were top of the table when they did it. There’s nothing impressive or valiant about what they did. They played like a relegation threatened side and got exactly what they deserved. Fuck all.
We were brilliant and absolutely dominated this game from start to finish. The occasional breakaway or chance that came from alehouse balls up the middle don’t change that.
“Ze best team lost”. Been a while since we’ve heard that trademark bullshit from the little gobshite. 15 years apparently since he first said it. Time flies. Alarmingly. 15 years?? Fucking hell.
Klopp’s face when he heard that was a picture. At first you could see him wondering if he heard it right and he asked him to repeat it. When he did, Klopp just started laughing at him and then patted him on the back. As far as condescending gestures go, it was a little disappointing. Should have patted him on the top of the head.
It’s not mind games though, as in Mourinho’s warped little bus parking head I have no he believes they did deserve to win. Why? Because his gameplan is defend, frustrate and wait for counter attacks or mistakes. They did that but they didn’t convert the chances when they came.
Here’s the thing though, it’s a risky as fuck gameplan because you’re relying on the opponent missing their chances. And we did miss chances. Loads of them. If we’d converted a couple more of them then this would have looked like a shite performance from Spurs. There is nothing clever about what he did. Nothing at all.
It’s a fine line between a “Mourinho masterclass” and an absolute steaming turd of a performance. He treads that line all the time in big games, yet when it goes wrong he hardly ever gets the criticism his shithousery deserves. On the odd occasions it works though, there’s a line all the way around the block of pundits wanting to hail the latest “Mourinho masterclass”. Get to fuck you lazy, narrative driven bastards.
We were brilliant in this game. We dominated possession, played some fucking beautiful football and had at least three times as many chances as Spurs did. Anything they did was the result of a rare counter attack or a hopeful punt upfield. I can’t stress this enough.
It actually bothers me a little that they were still level so late in the game as we deserved far better than that. I’d say this was our best performance of the season. It was one of those when you could tell that everyone knew we needed a performance and they went out and dominated.
The midfield three were incredible. I mean, the whole team was excellent, but those three in the middle were just fucking immense all night. Hendo played like he always does, Wijnaldum was in ‘Big Game Gini’ supercharged mode and Curtis was absolute quality. They bossed the game from first minute to last.
In the build up to the game Mourinho did one of ‘those’ press conferences. Ones when he knows he’ll have everyone talking about ‘good old Jose’. He went through our starting line up but only named ten players. He forgot Jones, which is hardly surprising as he’s been overlooking talented young players his entire career in management.
He won’t forget him next time.Not after Curtis went the full Iniesta on him. What a performance this was from the kid. He just oozed class and maturity all night. What a player he is already, let alone what he is going to develop into.
It’s just a pity our finishing wasn’t a little sharper. Mo shot straight at Lloris after a brilliant little move. Curtis didn’t get enough on a decent opening from just inside the box and again Lloris was able to make an easy save. Bobby could have done better with a header and then produced a better effort that was well saved.
The one we did convert was fortunate. Jones surged into the box but was tackled. The ball fell nicely for Salah and his shot deflected off two Spurs defenders and looped up over Lloris into the top corner. Lucky but no more than we deserved.
Their equaliser came out of nothing. Amazon almost missed it as they were showing a replay of a Sadio overhead kick that went straight at Lloris. Lo Celso did well to create it and Son did even better to finish it. Our lads were all appealing for offside and the replay seemed to suggest Son was a toe offside.
I’ve yet to see anything conclusive to show he was onside because those replays we saw were a load of bollocks. Usually we get the super close up with the red and blue lines, but this time it was a quick aerial shot that didn’t tell us anything. It didn’t even look like the line was drawn to Son’s toe. It’s halfway down his foot.
To me that’s level and it should always be onside. That isn’t my beef here. My beef is that if this was at the other end they’ve have been looking to make it offside and manipulated the starting point of the lines to back it up. Nothing you can say will convince me otherwise. Not after that fucking derby game.
And call me paranoid, but that VAR check was awfully fucking quick, wasn’t it? Maybe it was easier because they were using the feet of both players so didn’t have to get the old etch a sketch lines drawn from arms or arses or whatever. It just doesn’t sit well with me that every marginal one of these calls goes against us.
That was pretty much the one and only time Spurs left their own half in the opening 45 minutes. We got caught cold really. The problem was allowing Lo Celso to run as far as he did. Williams had no chance really because there was a runner through the middle and then Son to his left.
He went toward the runner through the middle but he held his line well, it’s not liked he dropped a yard deeper to play anyone on. I just think he was unlucky there as if he’d tried to go with Son the ball through the middle was on. It just shows how well we did throughout the game though to restrict those kind of counter attack opportunities.
It was daylight robbery that they were on level terms though at the break. Maybe our lads were feeling a bit hard done by because they didn’t start the second half too sharply and Spurs had a great chance within seconds.
Williams came for a high ball and for probably the only time in the game he missed it. Suddenly Bergwijn was in on goal. Trent tried to get back and maybe did enough to put him off, because he toe poked it well wide.
That seemed to give Spurs a little bit of confidence because they were definitely less cowardly in their approach for the next 15 or 20 minutes. Kane had a good effort when he intercepted a pass from Alisson and then tried to lob him from 30 yards with his left foot. Alisson just about got back to tip it away.
Kane also missed a free header from a corner and then later had a shot finger tipped wide by Alisson. That should never have even got that far as Sissoko blatantly handled in the build up. Literally everyone in the stadium and watching on TV saw that. Well not everyone, that badly little manc fuck Anthony Taylor somehow missed it.
The best chance Spurs had was when Bergwijn got in and hit the post. Pure route one that. Long ball to Kane who headed it on to Son, who then headed it on to Bergwijn. He should have scored. That was their big moment and thankfully they fluffed it.
We hit the woodwork too, not that Mourinho will acknowledge that as it was only Spurs that had chances remember. Would have been a cracking goal too. Sadio spinning away from Aurier onto a Jones pass before smashing a shot against the bar. Sadio can’t buy a goal at the moment.
We had other chances. Bobby had a shot blocked and Salah was denied by Lloris, but it was really fucking hard creating chances against that parked bus. The lads kept plugging away and never lost their patience. That was really impressive I thought. We never resorted to aimless crosses or desperate long shots. They just played their football and didn’t panic, and eventually, belatedly, the reward came.
What a fucking header that was. Initially I thought it must have been Williams as usually it’s only centre halves who attack balls like that. Then I saw Bobby wheeling away in delight. Absolutely fucking made up for him and for us.
Of course there was a lengthy VAR check while they looked to see if there was any way they could screw us over again. Apparently they were looking to see if Henderson illegally blocked Dier. Thankfully common sense prevailed because that kind of thing happens at every single set-piece and is never punished.
Actually no, it was punished once. Can't remember what game it was but Jones was ludicrously adjudged to have blocked someone and we had a goal chalked off because of it. They could have disallowed this one too if they wanted because they can do what they like really, can't they? There's no accountability for any of it. I think Bobby might have killed someone if they'd tried to take this one off him though.
So a richly deserved win and a big fuck you to Mourinho and his negative tactics. Spurs are basically Burnley only with two genuinely world class forwards. Put Son and Kane in a Sean Dyche team and you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.
Picking a star man is near impossible. I should have given it to Alisson last week but it’s just never really in my head to even think about the keeper when I’m giving the star man. Alisson is just about the only one not in contention here but not because he did anything wrong. He was fine, he just didn’t have too much to do.
Everyone else was brilliant. Williams performed way beyond his years once again and deserves every bit of praise that will come his way. He might actually convince Klopp not to go into the market in January. Ideally I’d prefer an established option as the stakes are so high for us, but I can see an argument for not wanting to block this kid’s path because he doesn’t look like an emergency stop gap (like Big Nat for example). He genuinely looks like he could make it.
Alongside him Fabinho was amazing. What a performance from him. Robbo was his usual self too, Trent played well, I mentioned the midfield lads earlier and the front three were relentless all night.
I thought Mo was terrific and his work rate all night really caught the eye. There were a few times when it was him chasing back to stop Son on counter attacks and he was constantly probing and pressing their defence.
Bobby was involved in a lot of good things but if he hadn’t scored he’d probably have taken some stick because his lack of goals has been trying the patience of almost everybody. Klopp being the only person who doesn’t seem worried about it. He did score though and he deserves all the credit in the world for delivering when it mattered most.
Sadio was a weird one. He didn’t start that well but he just kept -plugging away and trying to make things happen. By the end of the game he’s worn Aurier down and it felt like he was beating him every time. Before that it had been an even battle. Some of Sadio’s control under pressure was incredible but his final pass or shot was generally lacking. Overall he was really good though because like Mo he just kept relentlessly going at them.
So who do I go for as the star man? Fuck knows. I can’t decide. It’s definitely one of the midfield three (or Fabinho) but it’s impossible to separate them so take your pick I guess.
The result sends us top again but I’m not expecting us to be there continually now until May. There’ll be ebbs and flows I think and we may well get knocked off at some point. It might even be this weekend as Palace away is tough, especially given our lack of wins on the road this season.
Big picture though I think we’re in great shape and beating Spurs was vitally important. We’re still the big dog in the pack and we’ve just slapped down one of the young bucks trying to steal our spot.
I love how the team has responded to all these difficult home games. Leicester looked like it could be a tricky one. It wasn’t. Wolves had a lot of us fearing the worst. We were fine. And this was the toughest test so far. The scoreline was close but the game wasn’t. Great performance.
Fucking get in there!!!
Hopefully GH saw that one is smiling. Such a shame he didn’t have a full Anfield paying him the tribute he deserved.
Team: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, R Williams, Fabinho, Robertson; Henderson, Jones, Wijnaldum; Salah, Firmino, Mané:
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