Liverpool 4-2 Tottenham: Premier League – as it happened | Premier League
Key events
Match report: Liverpool 4-2 Tottenham Hotspur
Andy Hunter has filed from Anfield, which means it’s time to wrap things up. Thanks for your company and emails – goodnight!
Liverpool reaction
Cody Gakpo
It’s been a disappointing few weeks. To win like this at home – and we could have scored more – was a good day. We enjoyed it: play together, go for goals, defend together.
[On his goal] It was a good cross from Harv, that’s why! But yeah, it was a good header. [On his fatherhood-themed celebration] I’m very happy, very blessed. That was for my son, yeah. Everyone’s doing well.
Harvey Elliott
We were motivated to put it right. We all know we haven’t been good enough in the last couple of weeks; that’s just a fact. The boys went out and did a great job.
[On his goal] I thought it was over to be honest. It was only when I saw it drop at the last minute that I knew it was going in. It’s about time I scored a goal: I’ve hit the bar and post and everything in the last few games. It’s always nice to score, especially at Anfield. [On his celebration] It was for my friend. I’ve been promising it for god knows how many months since I last scored. Today I managed to do it.
That was a richly entertaining game between two teams who don’t care much for a low block. Liverpool raced into a 4-0 lead, with Harvey Elliott scoring the pick of the goals, before allowing Spurs back into the game in the last quarter.
The substitute Richarlison scored one, made another for Son and got behind the Liverpool defence almost at will. If he played with such penetration every week, he’d be worth £200m. A third Spurs goal would have made things interesting, especially after last season, but Liverpool held firm and could easily have made in 5-2 on the break.
Liverpool fully deserved to win. That was probably their best performance since the 1-1 draw with Manchester City in March, and it’s even longer since they had so much fun on a football field.
Full time: Liverpool 4-2 Tottenham
Peep peep!
90+7 min Vicario makes a flying save from Nunez right on the edge of the Liverpool area. And that’s it.
90+4 min: Disallowed goal Salah scores emphatically from Nunez’s low cross, only for the flag to go up against Nunez. It looked tight on the replay, though play resumed very quickly. After the fiasco in the return game, I’d imagine the VAR team were a gazillion per cent certain before they told Paul Tierney to restart play.
90+3 min “Look,” says Angus Chisholm, “I’m an Arsenal fan, so Spurs’ set-piece travails are extremely funny to me. But I’m also Australian so I feel compelled to stick up for Ange a bit, and the fact that his comments have been somewhat misinterpreted and then blown out of all proportion.
“He’s not said that set pieces are unimportant, or that he doesn’t care about them, or whatever. His point is that they’re not his priority at this point in his ‘project’, and that he has more pressing fundamental issues to work on with his team. That seemed pretty obvious. It took Arteta years to turn Arsenal into the finely drilled set piece team they are now, and they had more obviously pressing technical, tactical and personnel issues to deal with in the intervening seasons.
“There’s no guarantee that Ange will have similar success of course. But if Tottenham do want to jettison him, then with potential managerial vacancies elsewhere, maybe he could finally get the opportunity to manage a big English club that he so clearly deserves.”
There’s no chance he’ll leave Spurs, unless a bigger club goes for him.
90+2 min Alexander-Arnold is booked for taking his time over a throw-in.
90+1 min Richarlison gets behind the defence yet again and is about to shoot from 10 yards when Alexander-Arnold takes the ball off his toe. Richarlison’s movement has been brilliant since he came on.
90 min Alexander-Arnold’s outswinging corner is headed wide by Van Dijk, the 33rd attempt at goal in this game. Moments later Maddison’s dangerous low cross is booted clear by Gomez in the six-yard box.
Seven added minutes. Sod it, make it 20, this is great fun.
88 min: No penalty That’s fair enough I think, although had it been outside the area a free-kick would have been given. Different rules apply, I guess, and to most observers it was a brilliant piece of acrobatic defending from Gomez.
87 min: So close! Richarlison rampages into the area, left of centre, and hits a left-footed shot across goal. Alisson makes a brilliant save, but the ball still loops up in front of an open goal. Gomez clears with a spectacular flying kick and then brushes the head of Johnson in his follow through.
There’s a VAR check for a penalty.
87 min Salah plays a nice angled pass into the area for the onrushing Szoboszlai, who shoots wide of the near post on the run. Couldn’t quite wrap his foot round the ball, etc.
86 min “I like Robertson, of course, and he’s an important player for Scotland,” says Simon McMahon. “I have fond memories of his one season at Tannadice too, but they’re tainted somewhat by his last game in a United shirt. The one and only time my team have actually featured on the MBM (if you don’t count the hundreds of times I’ve emailed during other games, of course). I mean, St. Johnstone. BLOODY ST. JOHNSTONE.”
85 min Richarlison has been full of beans since coming on. After another good run from him, Son tees up Lo Celso for a tame shot that is easily saved by Alisson.
84 min: Liverpool substitution Dominic Szoboszlai replaces the superb Harvey Elliott.
83 min: What an effort! Alexander-Arnold intercepts a pass on the halfway line, spots Vicario off his line and immediately rakes a spectacular shot towards goal. Vicario charges back desperately and is extremely relieved to see it fly a few yards over the bar.
82 min Salah goes down in the area after a challenge from Skipp, and is about to appeal for a penalty when the flag goes up for offside.
The offside looked tight on the replay but play resumes pretty quickly. No idea whether it was a foul though.
80 min Salah misses a sitter from six yards. It was a weird incident: Elliott’s deep cross was stunned back across goal by Gakpo. Van de Ven pointedly left the ball, even though Salah was behind him on the six-yard line, but that so surprised Salah that he could only dangle a leg at fresh air.
As Gary Neville says, Van de Ven can only have assumed Vicario was behind him.
80 min Almost another one for Spurs! Son beats Alexander-Arnold on the left edge of the area, only to slip as he tries to trick his way past Quansah. Had he got past him he would have had a clear shot.
Liverpool switched off at 4-0 and Spurs are taking advantage. Skipp found Richarlison in far too much space, back to goal 10 yards out. He didn’t have quite enough time to turn so instead laid it back to Son, who swept a disguised shot past Alisson.
There’s a VAR check for offside but the goal stands. Son has become the first visiting player to score in four consecutive Premier League games at Anfield.
GOAL! Liverpool 4-2 Tottenham (Son 77)
I say!
75 min: Spurs substitution Giovani Lo Celso on, a woebegone Pape Sarr off.
74 min: Double substitution for Liverpool Ryan Gravenberch and Darwin Nunez replace Alexis Mac Allister and Luis Diaz.
GOAL! Liverpool 4-1 Tottenham (Richarlison 73)
Another clean sheet bites the dust. Johnson gets away down the right and slides an early cross to Richarlison, all alone in the middle. He guides a first-time finish across Alisson from about eight yards. He took that well.
72 min Elliott tries to repeat his goal – the position is almost identical – but curls straight at Vicario.
He’s such an impressive player.
71 min Son’s cutback from the byline takes a touch off Quanash and deflects into a dangerous area. Richarlison is on his heels, though, and Gomez has time to unfold a deckchair before clearing.
71 min Since winning 4-0 at Villa Park in March, Spurs’ run of results away from home is not pretty: 0-3, 1-1, 0-4, 0-2, 0-4*.
69 min “Glad Liverpool are giving a proper tribute to Klopp’s extraordinary tenure after the last few woeful games,” says Colum Fordham. “Really impressed by Robertson who is scoring goals and crossing beautifully. One of Liverpool’s key players.”
As I’m sure Simon McMahon will agree, he’s peaking at just the right time.
67 min Alisson makes a trademark one v one save from Son, though everyone knew Richarlison was offside in the build up. Alexander-Arnold didn’t bother to run back with Son, so obvious was it.
66 min Maddison turns Bajcetic smartly on the edge of the area but then shoots over with his left foot. He looks bright though.
66 min “Some good form at just the right time,” says Matt Dony, cheerily high-fiving strangers in the street. “Glad they haven’t left it comically late or anything…”
65 min: Double substitution for Liverpool Joe Gomez and Stefan Bajcetic – back after missing almost the entire season through injury – come on for Andy Robertson and Wataru Endo.
63 min Maddison is immediately fouled on the edge of the D. He slaps the free-kick into the wall, and then 20 seconds later Bissouma is booked for kicking the ball away.
61 min: Triple substitution for Spurs James Maddison, Richarlison and Oliver Skipp replace Bentancur, Kulusevski and poor Emerson Royal.
Jurgen Klopp is beaming with paternal pride. Emerson Royal’s defensive header went only to Salah, who touched it back to Elliott. He skipped daintily past Bentancur, on the edge of the D, before arrowing a left-foot drive into the top corner. That’s a beautiful goal.
GOAL! Liverpool 4-0 Tottenham (Elliott 60)
A majestic goal from a seriously likeable young footballer.
58 min Porro spots Alisson off his line and tries to score from the halfway line. He doesn’t.
57 min Emerson Royal fouls Salah and is booked. He’s having what is known in some cultures as a torrid.
