Liverpool bounced back
from defeat at Man City on Monday by bursting Spurs’ bubble at White Hart Lane
on Sunday lunchtime.
Two wins from two had propelled Pochettino’s men up the
table and won them plaudits in the London-centric media, but they were brought
back to earth with a bump by Brendan Rodgers’ men, who outperformed them throughout
and were good value for their three-goal victory. Classy and in control from
start to finish, the Reds returned to winning ways in style following Monday
night’s disappointing defeat away to City.
The main team news saw Mario Balotelli make his Liverpool
debut up front alongside Daniel Sturridge, coming in for Coutinho, who dropped
to what was a strong looking bench. Although clearly rough around the edges,
Balotelli showed plenty of promising signs. Powerful and strong on the ball, he
posed a constant threat to Tottenham’s backline and deservedly received a
standing ovation from the travelling Kop when he was substituted on the hour
mark.
Encouragingly, he linked up well with Sturridge and
Sterling, the latter of which put in a man of the match performance. Right from
the off, the tricky and talented Sterling tormented Tottenham’s defence,
opening the scoring soon after Balotelli had spurned a glorious opportunity to
start his Liverpool career in the perfect fashion.
Two minutes in, the Italian peeled away to the back post to
meet Sturridge’s cross and head goalwards, but unfortunately his bullet header
went straight at Lloris, who made a good save. Thankfully, the visitors only
had to wait six more minutes for the opener, which concluded a clever move down
the right hand side. Sturridge fed Henderson, who played an intelligent square
pass across the box to Sterling. Great movement enabled him to evade his marker
and he netted from a tight angle with aplomb.
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| Sterling celebrates with his teammates |
Despite being second best in the possession stats, Liverpool
were in control. Tottenham enjoyed nearly two-thirds of the ball during the
first 20 minutes, but were struggling to create clear-cut chances, Adebayor’s
elevated effort onto the roof of the net immediately after Sterling scored the
best they could produce.
Liverpool, conversely, may not have seen as much of the
ball, but were looking extremely dangerous on the counter attack. One such
counter attack saw Sterling spin out of a tackle and set free Sturridge, whose
left footed shot went just past the post.
Balotelli then fluffed his lines with another close range
header, before being the victim of a reckless sliding challenge from Eric Dier,
who amazingly escaped punishment, even though Joe Allen was booked moments
later for a far less grievous offence on Erik Lamela.
Undeterred, the enigmatic Italian remained focussed and
well-behaved, and added an extra dimension to Liverpool’s attack. His clever
back heel set up Sturridge, whose curled effort forced Lloris into a save, and
then on the half hour mark he demonstrated immense strength to hold off a
defender before playing the ball through to Sturridge. Lloris was out quickly
to clear, but it went straight to Balotelli, who shanked his effort well wide,
to the great amusement of boss Brendan Rodgers.
The match pivoted on six minutes either side of half time.
Before the break, Mignolet made a fantastic save to deny Chadli and bail out
his centre backs after both Sakho and Lovren tried and failed to beat Adebayor
in the air. That save was absolutely vital, as the outcome of the match could
have been very different had the teams entered the interval at 1-1.
As it turned out, Liverpool scored a second soon after the
restart to put them firmly in the driving seat, although they benefitted from
some generous refereeing from Phil Dowd. Admittedly Dier did pull back Allen in
the box, but the Welshman certainly won the penalty by going to ground when he
clearly could have stayed on his feet. Not that Steven Gerrard cared; he
stepped up to convert his 43rd successful spot kick for Liverpool,
surpassing Jan Molby’s total to set a new club record.
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| The Reds' next terrific trio |
When Alberto Moreno then scored a superb solo goal on the
hour mark, it truly was game, set and match Liverpool. Exploiting an error from
Spurs sub Andros Townsend, Moreno embarked on a brilliant run down the left
wing and then blasted beautifully into the far corner in a manner reminiscent
of former Reds’ left back John Arne Riise.
If Moreno can continue to score goals similar to the ones
the ginger Norwegian bagged in his prime, the memory of his mistake for Man
City’s first goal on his debut will soon be banished.
With the game over as a contest, Rodgers immediately
introduced two new faces, Markovic and Can replacing Balotelli and Allen
respectively. The former was neat and tidy, while the latter also showed signs
of promise. They may not make the same instant impact as Balotelli, but they
both appear to be valuable additions to the Reds’ squad.
Intent on replicating last season’s 5-0 win at White Hart
Lane, Sturridge tested Lloris, the French stopper producing a solid save to
turn his strong shot behind for a corner, from which Lovren headed over.
Liverpool’s last real chance fell to Sterling after Can had
surged forward and fed him the ball. The England international danced past the
entire Tottenham defence in remarkable fashion to engineer space in the box,
but produced a pitiably weak effort with the goal at his mercy.
Rodgers summed the moment up comically when he said, “Raheem
ran into the box like Ricky Villa and finished it like Ricky Gervais!” When
you’re 3-0 up you can afford to miss golden chances like that and have a good
laugh about it afterwards.
Liverpool now enter the international break on a much
brighter note. Three points, three goals and a clean sheet at Spurs are all
achievements to be proud of and provide a platform on which the team can build
once they return from international duty.
YNWA
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