What a brilliant performance. The scoreline doesn’t reflect it, just as it didn’t against Leicester, but this was really outstanding football and a proper big boy win.
Spurs have been shite this season but as so often happens, we got their best effort. Teams don’t ever seem to have days off against us, do they?
I’ll be honest, I thought we’d smash Spurs everywhere. Usually I’m the first to predict a tight game whenever we play them, because they nearly always are. It’s always tough against them though, and so it proved again. Sort of.
It was close in terms of the scoreline but the balance of play and gulf between the teams was as I expected. I thought we’d play well and we'd win 4-1. And we ought to have. It certainly wouldn’t have flattered us.
Spurs were right up for it and I doubt they’ve put more effort into a game all season. This wasn’t the meek bunch of half arsed cowards we’ve seen for most of this season. This was the Spurs we’ve come to expect from all those hard fought encounters we’ve had with them.
It probably helped that they got off to such a great start. If we’d scored in the first minute then maybe they’d have capitulated the way they did against Bayern and Brighton. We didn’t score in the first minute though, they did.
Hendo was caught in possession in midfield and they broke quickly on us. It’s the only real weakness we have. The only time we really look vulnerable is when we lose the ball unexpectedly and are caught out with men upfield. Teams don’t play through us, but they can break on us when we lose the ball cheaply.
We did have men back but Sissoko burst forward past a few challenges and fed Son. He cut inside Trent and hit a shot from outside the box that hit Lovren on the head, wrong footed Alisson and came back off the post to a waiting Kane who headed in.
I hoped that he was offside but my gut feeling was he wasn’t. I knew there’d be a VAR check but wasn’t holding out much hope. There was a brief delay but the goal rightly stood. A terrible start but it’s better to fall behind int he first minute than the last.
For some reason conceding in the first minute always feels like a right kick in the balls, but really it’s the best time for it to happen as you’ve got longer to turn it around. I wasn’t worried at this point, I just saw it as a minor inconvenience. I was worried later, but I’ll get to that.
The goal was a bit of a shock to the system and in those early stages it was a little jittery. The crowd weren’t fully into it and when Spurs went within a whisker of getting a second there was a collective exhaling of breath. After that though we just astride to build up a head of steam and fucking battered them.
The problem was, their back up keeper was having the game of his life and we just couldn’t find a way past him. It was exasperating. We were playing football at a pace that few teams can even come close to matching. When we get on a roll like that it’s spectacular.
There was a five minute spell when I think Spurs only completed one pass and we had four shots on target. It was relentless pressure and Spurs shit themselves. At one point the ball was rolling back to the keeper only for Alderweireld to run over and smash it out of play. Pochettino let to his feet and was screaming at his players to calm down, but it’s hard.
Better teams than Spurs have folded under that kind of pressure, with the crowd right into it and the Reds swarming all over them. The noise during that spell was deafening. I mentioned that I thought the crowd was a little subdued early on, but that spell of pressure woke everyone up and the place was bouncing the rest of the way.
Unfortunately their keeper was proving to be unbeatable. The twat ruined what would have been one of the goals of the season when he clawed a Salah shot out of the top corner. That came after the latest outrageous Firmino lay off. The keeper then saved the follow up effort from Bobby.
Trent was also denied by the keeper with a piledriver from a Robbo cutback. Virgil probably should have scored with a free header but he put it too central and the keeper was able to tip it over the bar. Sadio missed a free header too when he seemed to get his angles all wrong and glanced it well wide.
I thought we were playing great and yet I was starting to worry. It was nowhere close to panic, but there was a little voice nagging away at me that we might come unstuck just because of a fucking stand in keeper having the kind of game he’d be telling his grandkids about.
That nagging voice became louder when he pulled off a save to keep out a Firmino header early in the second half, and it was positively fucking yelling at me when he somehow managed to sit down on another Bobby effort that had gone through his legs and stopped on the goal-line.
I know better than to doubt this team as they always find a way, but it’s human nature to sometimes start to think that it’s one of those days. A week ago we had an eight point lead. Now it was looking like it might be reduced to three.
Then up popped Hendo. What a guy. Prior to the goal, how many of you were thinking that he should be subbed? I’ll not deny that it crossed my mind (although I’d have leaned more towards Gini). Klopp was never going to change anything at half time, especially considering how well we were playing, but I did think it was only a matter of time before we’d need Ox on there.
Hendo and Gini had been ok but maybe Ox would make the difference, with his willingness to shoot from distance and run at people? As it turned out, we didn’t need Ox and it was Hendo who proved to be that difference maker. I couldn’t be happier for him, I thought he was outstanding in that second half and his energy and unselfish running off the ball helped us get Trent involved a lot more. A lot of the things he did probably went largely unnoticed, but he was constantly running and taking defenders away.
His goal was a great finish too. It would have been easy to fuck that up, on the half volley with his left foot, but he got over the top of it and drilled it into the bottom corner. It sort of came from nowhere too, I was watching Bobby get shoved in the back and was about to scream for a pen and then next thing the ball was in. My Dad didn’t even see it, I had to tell him what happened because he’d been distracted by the shove on Bobby too.
I wonder what would have happened if Hendo hadn’t scored? Pretty sure Anthony Taylor wouldn’t have given it, and the daft bastard lino on the Main Stand side defo wouldn’t have. Ordinarily, VAR wouldn’t give it either, but we’ve seen a big change in that this weekend. I’m fine with that, the threshold needed to be lowered, but it’s gone too far the other way and the video refs have allowed this new found freedom to go to their heads. I’ll cover all that in the round up later in the week though.
Maybe I’m doing Taylor a dis-service and maybe he would have given the pen. He did eventually give us one later in fairness to him, although how could he not? It doesn’t get much clearer than that really, although there are some out there who are so consumed by fear of us winning the title that they’ll even dispute the legitimacy of that decision.
As well as we’d played, the one thing that was pissing me off all day was the lack of desire to get Sadio isolated one against one against the train wreck that is Serge Aurier. There were several occasions in the first half when the ball down the line would have been on, only for Sadio to be positioned inside.
I understand that’s what he’s told to do and it’s all part of the strategy of getting Robbo into space, but it was annoying as fuck because any time Mané is one v one against Aurier it’s going to be big trouble for Spurs. We should have been trying to do that at every opportunity.
Look at what happened when we finally saw it. It was just a hopeful ball over the top into the left wing position, and Mané just blew by him. Aurora recovered and almost won the ball back, but he’s a clumsy fucker and Sadio knew it. He just positioned himself between Aurier and the ball and let the inevitable happen. Clever.
Gazzaniga couldn’t save the pen, could he? I almost didn’t watch. I contemplated just looking away and waiting to hear the crowd reaction. Then I told myself not to be such a massive shithouse and I watched as Mo did his customary run up and hit a low one past the flat-footed keeper.
Not the greatest of penalties but when he runs up like that it’s off putting for the keeper and it’s difficult to know where it’s going. If he’d gambled and just dived he might have saved it, but when you suspect the taker is just going to smash it then I’d never blame a keeper for standing up and hoping it goes central.
Salah is no Milner when it comes to pens but as long as he gets the job done then who cares. We deserved that lead and it was amusing to see Spurs suddenly in a hurry considering that they’d been wasting time ever since they scored in minute one.
I thought Taylor enabled that too much and could have done more to stamp it out. He did book Sissoko for preventing us taking a free-kick, but only after Son had brazenly done the same twice before.
Spurs were really acting the cunt all day and Taylor didn’t really do anything to stop it. Rose was taking forever on any throw in, the keeper was as bad with goal-kicks, and Kane was committing fouls every time the ball was hoofed up to him. Yet Trent and Lovren were both booked as a result of Kane playacting.
I hate that cunt. Always have. Always will. He’s a really good footballer though, I can’t deny it. Yet in this game he was little more than a slobbering Ashley Barnes. Spurs kept launching it up to him, and he kept barging and nudging the centre backs (usually Lovren) and getting away with it.
He’s clever in how he does it. He’ll nudge them a second or two before the ball arrives so the ref doesn’t see it but the defender can’t get himself set to win the header. It’s nothing new, Graeme Sharp made a career out of it during the 80s, while Shearer was brilliant at it too.
It put a lot of pressure on Lovren though, who of course has had some bad memories of Kane. It’s often said that playing alongside Van Dijk makes life so much easier for everyone, and that’s obviously true. There is another side to it though. If you’re the ‘other’ centre back, then you’re going to be targeted. Strikers want no part of Virgil so they pull onto the other one. Whether it’s Gomez, Matip or Lovren. That brings a pressure of it’s own.
The first half booking made his job more difficult but he ought to know better than to put an arm anywhere near Kane, as you know exactly what he’s going to do. A bit naive from him, although I didn’t even think it was a foul as Kane just ran into him.
Overall I thought Lovren had a really solid game but it always felt like he was teetering on the precipice of doing something costly. He probably wasn’t, but that’s the perception. It often is, and it’s mostly unfair even if it is understandable.
I’m one of his biggest supporters but even I felt that way. The reality is that he did very little wrong. I’ve seen him getting some stick for the chance Son had when he ran clear, went round Alisson and hit the bar. I think that’s unfair. We’d just had a corner and he’d ran back into position, but the kick from the keeper was incredible and Son was just too quick.
If anything, that was on Trent more than Lovren, but sometimes you just have to give credit to the opposition. The pass was sensational and Son is a brilliant player. For all the talk about Kane, there’s no doubt in my mind who Tottenham’s best player is. If I could take any player from Spurs it would be Son. In fact, if I had the option of taking every player from Spurs he’d still be the only one I’d want. Shame he signed that contract a year or so back.
Anyway, from dominating the game ever since we fell behind in the first minute, we immediately went onto the back foot after we took the lead. I don’t know why that happens so often but it makes it fucking nerve wracking.
Spurs suddenly started throwing men forward and they had a couple of chances. First when Rose got in behind a sleeping Trent but thankfully blasted miles over the bar on his right foot, and then when Son struck one from the edge of the box into the midriff of Alisson, who held on safely.
Klopp had sent on Milner and Gomez to held shore things up and then Origi replaced Bobby for the closing moments. He had a chance to put the game to bed too when he latched onto a ball over the top, but instead of just driving forward he tried to check back inside. That’s the thing that infuriates me with Divock. He’s fast as fuck, strong and skilful. Just be more positive and back yourself, for fucks sake.
In the end we held on relatively easily, although by the end I had no voice as a result of screaming at Taylor and Danny Rose. What a fucking cheating little cunt Rose is. All he does is dive. Every week. The only reason I don’t hate him as much as I hate Kane is because he plays left back and not centre forward. He’s actually a bigger cheat than Kane.
It was funny listening to Roy Keane absolutely hammering him and Aurier though. As shite as they were, it’s always going to be difficult for opposing full backs to look good when Trent and Robbo are doing their thing. Those two.. fucking hell.
Robbo is the perfect full back, he has no weaknesses. Trent, on the other hand, does have a weakness defensively, but what we brings going the other way makes him the best right back around. When he irons out the kinks defensively, he won’t just be the best around, he might just be the best ever.
Bold statement I know, but what he’s doing this season is incredible. He’s creating more goalscoring opportunities than Kevin De Bruyne. It’s unbelievable really, but this is why Klopp sets his team up the way he does. For all the cryarsing about the ‘lack of creativity’ in midfield, the fact is the midfield are there to do a specific job that allows Trent to do what he does on one side, and Robbo to do it on the other.
They were brilliant, but neither were even our best player on the day. That was Fabinho, who was just unreal, especially in the second half. At times it felt like he was keeping Spurs penned in their own half single handedly. Every time they cleared the ball from the box, he was onto it. And then he’d spray it out wide to Trent or Robbo and it would start all over again.
What a fucking player he is. I’ve often said that when we play against Ngolo Kante it’s like facing an extra player or even two. It must be the same for opponents coming against Fabinho. He’s everywhere, but it’s not just the destroyer part of the game where he excels, his use of the ball is great too. It was his pass that led to Hendo’s goal and he was playing those little clipped diagonals all second half.
This felt like a big win, but they all do, don’t they? They are all big, but some are bigger than others and when you win when it looks like you might not, it always feels more significant. When it’s against a top six side, it’s even more significant, especially when you’re leading the way.
City will have looked at this as a potential opportunity for them to close the gap and when Spurs took the lead they’ll have had their hopes up. Every time we win a game like this it’s another body blow for them.
A six point lead is great, but it’s not just a six point lead. There’s context to it. It feels like more than that because of who we’ve played. Half the games we’ve played have been against what you would expect to be ‘top seven’ clubs. We’ve beaten Chelsea, Spurs, Leicester and Arsenal and we drew at Old Trafford.
City, on the other hand, have only played Spurs, and they were held to a draw by them. So to lead by six, after the games we’ve had? It’s fucking huge. Of course much is going to depend on what happens when we play City, but if we beat them and they still have all those tough games to come, we’re in great shape.
Team: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Lovren, Van Dijk, Robertson; Fabinho, Henderson, Wijnaldum; Salah (Milner), Firmino (Origi), Mané:
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