Liverpool once again enjoyed a successful trip to White Hart Lane as they dispatched a lacklustre Tottenham Hotspur by scoring 3 goals without reply. Liverpool were surely anticipating a more testing encounter at the home of one of the early Premier League pace-setters. What Liverpool actually experienced was another easy win against a team that is arguably just as good, if not, better than them on paper. The result will be a huge disappointment for Mauricio Pochettino and his side, who would have hoped their new style of play would allow them to fare better against the bigger teams than previous seasons, while the Reds will be relieved to have suitably shaken off the disappointment of Monday’s 3-1 defeat at The Etihad.
Pochettino, as one would expect, named an unchanged starting eleven from the previous fixture which was a comfortable 4-0 home win against fellow Londoners, QPR. The re-vitalised Spurs team lined up in a 4-2-3-1 with Nabil Bentaleb and Etienne Capoue deployed as two holding midfielders, giving the defence extra security after a solid start to the season in that department; Spurs were yet to concede a goal in the League after 2 games.
There was much more of a shake up from Brendan Rodgers – some changes were forced through injury – but one unforced change was the introduction of the £16 million man, Mario Balotelli. The exciting signing would partner Daniel Sturridge up front, spearheading a 4-4-2 formation with a diamond midfield. Other changes were unavoidable, as Mamadou Sakho stepped into Martin Skrtel’s centre back position for his first appearance of the season, with the latter suffering from an injury picked up during the City loss. Elsewhere in the defence, Javier Manquillo was reintroduced for the also-injured Glen Johnson. Finally, due to changes in the formation, Philippe Coutinho was sacrificed for Joe Allen in midfield, with Raheem Sterling taking over in the 10 role to be the creative spark in the middle of the park.
Liverpool’s quest to get back to wining ways got off to a very bright start, as Sturridge’s 2nd minute cross found a towering Balotelli, who was a better header away from scoring in the opening moments of his Liverpool debut. His nod-down was straight at Hugo Lloris, but this was a flash of what was to come for Tottenham.
Spurs were stirred rather than shaken. They calmed the frantic pace down with a long spell of possession, asserting themselves as any home team should, and though they lacked creativity, this spell of passing did have Liverpool doing some unwanted pressing in their own half. The pressing paid. After regaining the ball, the Reds launched a counter attack, which started with Sturridge showing good awareness on the wing, before sliding a ball into the willing run of Jordan Henderson, who advanced into the box at speed, leaving Capoue behind. His low cross found Sterling running in at the back post, and the youngster slotted home to record his second goal of the season already. Spurs’ sound defence had leaked for the first time after only 8 minutes of this game.
Eager to avoid a repeat of last season’s corresponding fixture’s result, Spurs picked up where they left off before the goal only in a more direct manner. Emmanuel Adebayor latched onto a long ball as Simon Mignolet rushed out of his goal. The former attempted a delicate chip over the Belgian, but his effort fell onto the roof of the net. As a result of this approach, the game opened up. Sterling and Sturridge’s link up play was easy on the eye, as the latter emerged in space. His 20 yard strike trundled wide of the Spurs net.
It was still the home team enjoying the lion’s share of possession, yet it was the leading visitors who looked more threatening. Another glorious chance fell to Balotelli in the 13th minute, as Gerrard whipped in a characteristically accurate free kick. Balotelli mistimed his header, but his effort bounced harmlessly wide.
Spurs generally had the better of the following 15 minutes, yet could only create one notable chance. Lovely team play allowed Danny Rose to take up possession on the edge of the box just before the half hour mark. Unfortunately for the young full back, his drive came closer to the away fans than the net. In the following moment, Liverpool had their only decent chance for some time when Sturridge received Balotelli’s back heel, with the English striker’s curling effort stopped by a Lloris leap.
Liverpool smelt blood yet again. Balotelli once again proved to be a creative influence, holding up play in his own half, before advancing into enemy territory. He tried to set up Sterling, who was denied by the oncoming Lloris. The ball fell back to Balotelli 35 yards out with the goal at his mercy, but the Italian skewed his volley horribly wide. Afterwards, the final great chance of the half was presented to the host’s Nacer Chadli, and what a chance it was. He couldn’t believe his luck when the ball found him running into the box, unpressured. However, his sharp volley stung Mignolet’s palms and all Spurs earned was a corner.
Due to Mignolet’s heroics, the half time score was 1-0 to Rodgers’ Reds. Their counter attacking approach had been deployed pleasingly well for the manager, though he would have been frustrated by his sides inability to hold on to the ball, which had limited the amount of open play chances Liverpool had carved out in the opening half. Steven Gerrard had been a serial offender in this regard; 8 of the Liverpool’s forward passes in that half failed to find their target. Pochettino, on the other hand, would have been hugely surprised and annoyed by his teams inability to capitalise on long periods of possession, with his Whites only having a solitary shot on target in that half.
Due to Spurs’ poor chance creation, one would suspect just one more Liverpudlian goal would seal all three points for the travellers. Therefore, the frustration all around White Hart Lane was understandable when, just 3 minutes after the restart, Eric Dier conceded a penalty by giving Joe Allen a slight tug as he raced into the box. Gerrard stepped up, as per usual, to slot home to his left. Lloris guessed the right direction, but his outstretched palm was beaten by the speed with which the former England captain struck it. Spurs now trailed by two, as Gerrard put a poor first half behind him.
As you would expect, Pochettino took action. Just before the hour mark, he ended Bentaleb’s day early and replaced him with the imposing Mousa Dembele in order to add both more defensive security as well as a more experienced head in the midfield, where they had been over-run by Allen and Henderson’s energy. Painfully for the new Spurs boss though, his substitution barely had time to take up his position before Liverpool put the game beyond reasonable doubt.
Summer signing Alberto Moreno advanced deep into the Spurs half, letting fly from the edge of the box, his spectacular finish cannoned in off the far post. Three goals and now surely three points were in the bag for Liverpool, with only an hour gone.
Rodgers took the chance to give a run out to a pair of his other summer signings following this goal, replacing the exciting Balotelli with the promising Lazar Markovic while Emre Can was introduced for the also impressive Joe Allen. Liverpool continued their high calibre performance with the changed, as Sturridge and then Lovren came close; first, Sturridge struck an effort that was too hot to handle for Lloris before Lovren headed over from the resulting corner.
Tottenham then reminded everyone that they too were playing by managing to register an effort for what felt like the first time in a footballing eternity, particularly for the home supporters. Adebayor once again hit the roof of the net, this time by heading over rather than chipping.
As previously mentioned, Spurs had looked incredibly sturdy defensively this season, but the electric Sterling almost made the day even worse for the now not-so-reliable defence. Picking up possession and driving into the box, he passed three challenges before emerging in acres of space right in front of the Tottenham net, only for his laughable finish to be calmly collected by a very busy Lloris.
The final quarter of an hour was played at a tempo that didn’t match the rest of the game, with Liverpool happy to enjoy possession and preserve the clean sheet they were yet to record this term. Spurs could claim that Mignolet’s clean sheet was not suitably tested, because when the game ticked into stoppage time, Sakho was accused of pulling Adebayor’s shirt, only for vicious home protests to be ignored by Phil Dowd.
And on that controversial note, the game ended. A slight chorus of boo’s went up as Dowd blew for full time; which is understandable giving the completely unrecognizable performance Spurs had produced from the week before – at home, too. On the other hand, Liverpool will have been most pleased to see their battle plan executed with such efficiency and success.
Such a performance always leaves a lot to ponder on when trying to decide who the stand out player was. It’s never a good reflection on your performance when your goalkeeper is considered as one of, if not the, best performers in the team; unluckily for Spurs, that was the case with them and Hugo Lloris. Though he didn’t make any outstanding stops, he guessed the right way for Gerrard’s penalty and contributed to the prevention of various counter attacks with his impressive judgement of when to leave the safety of his goal.
It was the polar opposite for the Reds, who had a variety of different players who could stake a claim for the award. Joe Allen not only comfortably did what was expected of him in his regular position, he also wasn’t afraid to step into enemy territory, earning his side a penalty when doing so. Brendan Rodgers will be happy to see Alberto Moreno recover from a difficult evening in Manchester last Monday by putting in an unbelievable performance at left back; not only did Moreno capable deal with whatever Spurs threw at him down his flank, he also had huge attacking intent, and, ultimately, it paid off when he scored an exceptional solo goal on the hour mark.
Despite these strong contenders, there’s one boy, or man as some would now dare to call him, who is lighting up the field every time he plays and that player is Raheem Sterling. The 19 year old is repeatedly putting in performances that are typical of a seasoned talent. His mature performance today saw him grab his second goal in three games, as well as helping out in a huge respect when his team were on the back foot. One goal doesn’t do his performance justice. He could have had at least one more, as he lead the Spurs back line a merry dance time and time again throughout the 90 minutes. Raheem Sterling is undoubtedly the Man of the Match.
Pochettino will most likely be returning to the drawing board as the vast majority of his team leave for International football, in order to bounce back away at Sunderland. Rodgers meanwhile will take great confidence in his team’s showing today. He, and the rest of the club, will be eagerly anticipating the hosting of Aston Villa in two weeks time.
