BRITAIN’S BEST COLUMNIST FROM WEMBLEY
do not see Sadio Mane taking out Son Heung-min.
The Video Assistant Referee system would have ensured injustice was done here – by ensuring justice was done – because, had Spurs got anything from this contest, it would have been a truly undeserved windfall.
That they nearly did get something was partly down to Salah’s selfishness.
Obviously, Klopp was sweetness and light after a fifth Premier League win on the spin, but he, no doubt, had a quiet word with Mo.
Klopp will not want all the positive publicity going to anyone’s head because the manager is only too aware that this is the season when he is expected to deliver.
In three weeks’ time, Klopp will raise a glass and a trademark laugh to three years at the Liverpool helm.
Check the roster for his very first match – against Spurs at White Hart Lane – to find emphatic proof that this really is his squad.
It might not have been a revolution, but it has been pretty rapid evolution. Only two of the 18 all named by Klopp for that goalless draw back on October 17, 2015 were among the names on the Wembley team-sheet.
While the outstanding James Milner and substitute keeper Simon Mignolet were Liverpool’s only survivors, there were 10 in the Tottenham squad, a number that would have been greater had Hugo Lloris and Dele Alli been fit.
There is only five matches’ worth of evidence to go on, but this looked like an improving side beating a side treading water. More worryingly for Spurs, this also looked like the sharp against the sluggish, with Harry Kane highlighting the latter.
But Tottenham’s torpor should not detract from Liverpool’s excellence.
Poor decision-making, as exemplified later on by Salah, meant they had to eventually rely on a scrappy second from Roberto Firmino, but the hugely encouraging thing for Klopp and Liverpool fans is that this sort of performance will, nine times out of 10, produce landslide triumphs.
Predictably, all the post-match talk was about markers being put down, but this was an extension of some generally excellent form this calendar year.
Virgil van Dijk’s impact since his arrival cannot be overstated and Milner’s career sunset continues to glow.
Trent AlexanderArnold is simply to the Premier League manor born and, as he did here, Jordan Henderson will have the view from the dugout plenty of times this season, such is the calibre of those competing in the midfield area.
As he agreed, this was Liverpool’s best display against Spurs since Klopp arrived.
Certainly better than that highon-energy, low-on-quality first match almost three years ago.
He has had time, he has had money. Now, Klopp looks ready to deliver.