LIVERPOOL MARCH ON

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HARRY KANE is tired, people are saying. Spurs are tired, people are saying. Liverpool, though, are not tired. Liverpool are playing like a team who want to make up for lost time. Liverpool are playing like a team possessed, a team who want to chase their ghosts away, a team who have not won the League for 28 years and desperately, furiously do not want it to become 29.

Last season at Wembley, Spurs overwhelmed them 4-1. It was a result that exposed Liverpool’s limitations. This time, Liverpool overwhelmed Spurs. They overwhelmed them with their class and with their conviction and with their energy and with their desire. The 2-1 scoreline may not sound as if it were an emphatic performance but that does not tell the story of the game.

The murmurs of dismay that spread through the ranks of the home crowd whenever Liverpool broke with the kind of speed and intent that spreads terror among opposing defences told the story of the game. The way Liverpool made a good Spurs team look sloppy for most of the 90 minutes was the story of the game.

The truth was that Jurgen Klopp’s side were in a different class. They have five wins from their first five games, their best start since the 1990-91 campaign, and this victory more than any of the rest was a sign that they are the real deal.

That is not to say they will win the title this season but it looks likely that theirs is a challenge that will test any team that aspire to finish above them to the very limit.

‘I am not the kind of personality to wait for problems,’ said Klopp after the match, when he was asked about the eye injury that forced Roberto Firmino off the pitch and how he thought his team would react when they had to cope with key absences. ‘But I am old enough to know they will come. I’ve been in this game long enough to know that no one plays a perfect season.’

For the moment, at least, Liverpool look formidable. Their investment in Alisson and Virgil van Dijk has made a huge difference to their confidence. Their strength has always been their attack but they had an Achilles heel and other t eams knew i t . Now t hey are armour-plated in defence and other teams know that, too. They are no longer a soft touch at the back.

They have set this pace even without their talisman of last season, Mo Salah, playing at his peak yet.

‘Playing our football that way is really nice for a manager,’ said Klopp as he lavished praise on his side. ‘This was by far our best performance of the season so I like this kind of development. They are such a good side that if we had played five per cent less, we’d have lost.’

Those who have revelled in their long title drought must be starting to get a little worried. Manchester City will take some beating in the race for the title, sure, and Chelsea are looking impressive, too, but every game Liverpool have played this season has been a statement of intent. This time, they do not look like a team that will fade away.

Without the injured Dele Alli, Spurs, whose resounding win over Manchester United feels like a long time ago now, seemed to lack conviction going forward.

Without the injured, repentant Hugo Lloris, they seemed to lack their usual certainty at the back, too. Eric Dier looked uneasy and out of sorts on the right side of a midfield three and Liverpool seized the initiative from the start.

They thought they had scored in the first minute when Firmino got the faintest of touches to a James Milner cross and it eluded Michel Vorm but Sadio Mane had tried to prod it in, too, from an offside position and even though he did not touch it, the officials ruled the attempt out because of his involvement.

Spurs were too careless too often and six minutes before half time, Liverpool finally scored the goal their conviction and their brio deserved. It was a surprise, perhaps, that it came from a set-piece but when Milner curled a corner in from the Liverpool left, Spurs’ normally excellent defending deserted them.

Vorm tried to punch the corner clear but was distracted by the presence of Van Dijk in front of him and failed to make proper contact. The ball popped up to the back post where Dier headed it away but his clearance lacked power and Gigi Wijnaldum’s rejoinder did not.

Ten yards out, Wijnaldum rose and headed the ball in a firm arc over Kieran Trippier, who had retreated to the line to try to cover Vorm’s uncertainties. Vorm flung himself at the ball as it cleared Trippier and pushed it out with both hands but referee Michael Oliver signalled immediately that goalline technology had ruled Wijnaldum’s header should stand.

It was Wijnaldum’s first away goal in the Premier League and he sniffed a second a minute or so later when he found himself in space on the edge of the Spurs sixyard box.

Mane and Firmino lurked in the middle but Wijnaldum was drunk on the glory of goals and shot. He dragged his effort across goal and

it rolled tamely over the byline. The crowd was dismayed by Liverpool’s superiority. They desperately needed encouragement, and hope finally came when Lucas Moura spun away from Joe Gomez and drilled a low shot against the foot of Alisson’s right-hand post. The home fans roared in relief as much as excitement. They took it as a sign that Spurs were not out of the game yet.

A minute later, they began to reassess. Liverpool just had too many ways in which to hurt them. Trippier was caught out of position, Mane broke free down the left and his pace took him to the byline. Jan Vertonghen stretched to intercept his cross but could only deflect it on to the inside of the post. The ball bounced across goal and squirmed agonisingly through the hands of Vorm as he lay on the floor. Firmino reacted quickest and lashed it into the net.

Liverpool should have gone three ahead midway through the second half when Mane led a lightning counter-attack that brought more murmurs of disquiet from the home fans. With Naby Keita free to his left and goal machine Salah free to his right, Mane chose Keita. He hit his shot too close to Vorm, who was able to divert it over the bar. On the touchline, Klopp spread his arms wide in irritation.

His anger at his team’s profligacy was given focus in injury time when substitute Erik Lamela took advantage of some sloppy Liverpool defending to control the ball at the back post, let it drop and then volley it with superb technique across Alisson and into the corner of the net.

Spurs pushed desperately for an equaliser and should have had a penalty in the dying seconds when Mane kicked Son Heung- min’s standing foot away from him but Liverpool escaped. Even Mauricio Pochettino admitted his opponents deserved to win. Klopp and his team march on.