Nine-man Reds hit for four in Spurs shocker

Liverpool were dealt a harsh reality check yesterday as they succumbed to their fifth loss in a row against Tottenham in what was undoubtedly their worst defeat during Kenny Dalglish's managerial reign. Two red cards and four goals conceded painted a stark picture as Harry Redknapp’s resurgent Spurs duly punished a poor display from the Merseysiders.

Jamie Carragher started his 468th league game to overtake the Anfield Iron Tommy Smith into sixth place on the club's all time appearance list, while Andy Carroll was handed his first start since the Reds' previous visit to North London, when they claimed an impressive 2-0 victory over Arsenal.

Having travelled to Greece and back to face PAOK in the Europa League in midweek, many expected the hosts to start the slower and tire quickly. However, it was the visitors who started sluggishly and failed to recover. The Reds were handed an early let off when Adebayor fired wide when well placed, but their luck didn't hold much longer as Modric latched onto Bale's left wing cross and curled an unstoppable strike into the top right hand corner of Reina's net soon after.


It was an unbelievably good goal from the Croatian, who clearly now has his head in the right place to play for Spurs after constant speculation throughout the summer linking him with a big money move to Andre Villas-Boas' Chelsea. The 26-year old then forced Reina to dive full length to keep out his low effort, before injury was added to insult as Daniel Agger, who had damaged his ribs in the build up to the opener, was replaced by debutant Sebastian Coates.

Suarez appeared to offer some light at the end of the tunnel for the away side on 18 minutes as he poked the ball beyond Friedel and into the net, however he was fairly flagged offside and that glimmer of hope was extinguished on the half hour mark as Charlie Adam capped our horror start by receiving his marching orders following a ridiculously high challenge on Scott Parker.

Liverpool's midfield had already been outplayed, out-thought and out-fought by their dominant Spurs counterparts and, with Adam having an early bath, the Reds found it doubly difficult to get a foothold in the contest and compete with their classy and clinical opponents.

Before the break Bale blasted a free kick off target and Kaboul headed Modric's cross wide and, disappointingly, the second half continued in the same vein right from the off, with Defoe pulling a shot wide from close range when he really should have doubled the Lillywhites' lead. His strike partner Emmanuel Adebayor then had a similarly embarrassing miss as his tame and weak effort was comfortably saved by Reina after Defoe had inexplicably beaten the off-form Martin Skrtel in the air and fed the former Gunners forward.

Skrtel was simply having a nightmare and pacy winger Gareth Bale ripped him to shreds every single time he sped past the clean-shaven Slovakian. Although both Johnson and Kelly are injured, the logic of selecting a centre back out of position against Bale must be questioned and even youngster Jon Flanagan surely would have done a better job at coping with the Welshman than the woefully inadequate Skrtel.

The number 37's day went from bad to worse shortly after the hour mark as he was rightly sent off after committing yet another bookable offence. From that point on Liverpool fell to pieces and Tottenham reaped the rewards, netting twice in quick succession. First, Jermain Defoe turned Enrique on the edge of the area before firing past Reina at the near post. The Spanish keeper was then at fault for Spurs' third goal as he spilt a long range shot into the path of Adebayor, who slotted home with a minimal amount of fuss.

With the outcome of the contest beyond doubt, the rest of the match was played out in exhibition mode for the home side, who kept the ball comfortably and remained in the ascendancy, claiming a chunky 65% of possession and prolonging the Reds' misery. Adebayor drove home in stoppage time to seal Spurs' biggest win over us in over 46 years.

Liverpool were simply dreadful yesterday and deserved exactly what they got; nothing. Our defence was shaky and vulnerable, our midfield was all too easily overpowered and our strike force was inevitably lacking ammunition due to ill-discipline leading to the pre-mature exit of Adam and Skrtel. Unlike at Stoke, we could not blame the referee as Mike Jones made the correct call in both red card incidents.

This match must be written off as a bad day at the office and forgotten immediately. Fixtures against Brighton and Wolves must now be used to regain confidence and momentum ahead of two massive matches against Everton and Manchester United at the beginning of October.

YNWA