Legend Souness hails ‘best Kop side for 30 years’
WHILE Liverpool continue to set a ferocious pace at the top of the Premier League, Tottenham already look like a team that has hit the wall.
Jurgen Klopp’s men kept up their perfect start to the season thanks to goals by Gini Wijnaldum and Roberto Firmino.
Five games, five wins – and a blistering statement of intent from the Reds as they took apart a Spurs team that had battered them last season.
It will still take a lot of hard yards for Liverpool to end nearly three decades of title hurt.
But Kop legend Graeme Souness says he has not seen a better vintage from Anfield since the 1989-90 season.
“This is the best Liverpool team since they won the league,” he said. “I think they’ve got a great chance to win the title.
“City have got equally fabulous players and I think it’ll be nip and tuck all the way through if that’s the intensity Liverpool can play with.”
But while one team at Wembley were hitting their stride, the other seemed to be running in cement.
Mauricio Pochettino (right) is paying a heavy price after a World Cup summer.
No fewer than seven of his players who started the game reached the semi-finals in Russia. Liverpool had just one.
Klopp was then allowed to splash more than £170million in the transfer market to add four top players to a squad that reached the Champions League Final. Tottenham’s cheque book is presumably in a packing case somewhere, waiting to be delivered to Daniel Levy’s office in the new White Hart Lane. Substitute Eric Lamela lashed in an injury-time consolation to give the impression that the contest was close. And Pochettino claimed his team should have then being given a penalty for Sadio Mane’s challenge on Son Heung-min. But the reality was that the scoreline flattered Pochettino’s team. “The performance wasn’t great, but it wasn’t great in the other games,” he admitted. “The difference is that today we played Liverpool, a team that played Real Madrid in the Champions League and have invested a lot of money. “Liverpool deserved their victory, but, if we had been given a penalty for the foul on Son, then it could have been a different result.” Only an offside flag against Mane prevented Firmino from giving the visitors the lead inside the first minute.
Michel Vorm then denied Mo Salah after the Egyptian had seized on Eric Dier’s poor pass.
When Liverpool got what they deserved in the 39th minute, it was down to Vorm’s mistake.
The Dutchman – in for the injured Hugo Lloris – flapped wildly at James Milner’s corner.
When Dier failed to clear, Wijnaldum was able to loop a header over Harry Winks and under the crossbar, referee Michael Oliver getting a signal from his watch to confirm the ball had crossed the line.
In the second half, Lucas Moura finally conjured up a response from the home side when he cut inside Joe Gomez and burst in between Trent Alexander-Arnold and Milner before sending a low shot against the outside of the post.
But then Mane broke in behind Kieran Trippier in the 54th minute to tease over a cross that came off Jan Vertonghen and struck the post.
When the grounded Vorm failed to collect the loose ball, Firmino couldn’t miss.
Spurs got a late lift when Christian Eriksen’s corner found Lamela lurking at the far-post and he scored.
Klopp said: “The performance was better than the result – and the result was perfect.
“To win here is unbelievably difficult and it was an outstanding performance from the guys.
“It was the best game of the season for us.”