This was a game for the ages; the game of the season. No question about it. Package it up and present it to any sceptic who doubts the Premier League is the most exciting, thrilling, chaotic and, yes, controversial league in the world. The only grumble? The officiating is not at the same high level as the football.
There was thunder and blunder, goals, chances, misses, saves, a red card given and one strangely not given, penalties that should have been awarded and were not, inconsistencies and intensity and, at the final whistle, a draw.
Six matches were called off this weekend but all the thrills and spills missing from those fixtures were found here. This was heavy metal football with the decibels through the roof; mad, bad and simply glorious.
It really did have everything – from the touchline frenzies of Jurgen Klopp and Antonio Conte with, out on the pitch, opportunities created, taken and spurned. The coaches hugged at the end but there was a far less friendly reception from Klopp for referee Paul Tierney who cautioned him in the first-half, with the manager haranguing the official in the tunnel at half-time and after the final whistle.
The winner? Manchester City who suddenly go three points clear at the top of the table but, for Tottenham, this will have felt good. If they play like this then they are emphatically back under Conte with Harry Winks and Dele Alli rolling back the years,playing like they used to play and the energy of the head coach matched by his players. It looked like that unexpected two-week break worked a treat.
And yet they could – should – have been down to 10-men in the first-half with Harry Kane fortunate not be red-carded for a late, studs-up lunge on Andrew Robertson who, later, was rightly sent off for a wild swing at Emerson Royal that led to a melee and a VAR intervention by Chris Kavanagh. The yellow card Robertson was initially awarded was up-graded to a red by Tierney.
Liverpool will believe that different rules apply for the captains of England and Scotland. Both players scored – Kane’s goal was his first at home in the Premier League this season and only his second overall – and both should have gone. Either that or Tierney should not have sent Robertson off.
Where to start? Spurs should have been three goals up by half-time but could also have conceded three and while Liverpool’s response was impressive the fact is they cannot play this kind of high defensive line without Virgil Van Dijk. In his absence they were far too open with Winks cannily exploiting it with passes in behind for Kane and Son Heung-min to run onto.
Spurs were depleted but so were Liverpool as they fielded a second-choice midfield that included 19-year-old Tyler Morton, on his full Premier League debut, alongside captain James Milner who made his debut in November 2002 – 10 days after Morton was born.
Maybe that made it all the more open because both sides went for it and without outstanding performances from Hugo Lloris and Alisson – bar a woeful mistake that gifted Son the equaliser – it could easily have been 5-5 instead of 2-2.
Robertson should have put Liverpool in front, but headed wide, Lloris thwarted Trent Alexander-Arnold and then, in keeping with such a crazy game, Spurs scored. There was a loose pass with Klopp holding his arms out wide in astonishment as if he knew what was going to follow. Winks slid in, won the tackle, the ball was quickly moved on to Tanguy Ndombele and he slipped it through to Kane who cleverly held his run. Played onside by Robertson he shot low across Alisson. “Harry Kane, he’s one of our own,” sang the jubilant Spurs fans.
The ascendancy was theirs. Kane ran free down the right, picked out Son and he sent it wide. Then Son was released, found Alli and Alisson denied him Alisson with a brilliant finger-tip save. Still Alli – like Son – had to score.
In between Kane should have gone. He argued he got the ball but clearly did not with Klopp claiming it was a potential leg-breaker on Robertson.
So the momentum swung again. Liverpool had been hanging on but, out of nothing, scored as Davinson Sanchez’s heavy touch allowed them to steal the ball away as Robertson burst to the byline with cut-back met by Diogo Jota who buried his header past Lloris.
It was the 33rd consecutive game that Liverpool had scored and they poured forward with Jota again teed up but he delayed the shot with Emerson barging into him. To Liverpool’s astonishment the penalty demands were waved away. Klopp had had enough. He was more and more agitated and, as he angrily gestured after another foul, Tierney cautioned him.
There was no let-up and there was another glaring miss from Spurs. It came as Alli was found and suddenly it was only him and Kane facing Alisson but he woefully under-hit a simple square pass with the goalkeeper excelling by blocking Kane’s shot. But what a chance. And there was another when a corner was flicked on, reaching Kane who could not adjust enough to keep his close-range header under the cross-bar.
The sound was louder and louder; the atmosphere crackled and exploded in a bewildering passage of play. Alexander-Arnold had his hands on Alli’s back as the midfielder went over in the area. But, again, no penalty was awarded with Spurs’s frustration compounded as Liverpool broke with a cross headed by Salah against his own hand, Lloris scooping it out and Alexander-Arnold driving the ball across the face of goal. Robertson stooped and headed it home. The angry protests came to nothing and the goal stood.
Alisson had been exceptional but, in keeping with such a crazy game, he erred as he beat Son to Winks through ball but somehow completely missed it with the forward gleefully side-footing into the empty net.
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