Draw slows run to quadruple titles
There was frustration from Ju¨rgen Klopp at dropping vital points but no moaning. His Liverpool’s 1-1 draw with a tactically disciplined and defensively robust Tottenham handed Manchester City an even greater initiative in the English Premier League title race.
The damage would have been greater had Luis Diaz’s deflected strike not cancelled out Son Heungmin’s tap-in for the fifth-placed visitors.
“I’m really proud of the performance,” Klopp said. “The mentality we showed.”
It’s the mentality that might yet propel the Champions League and FA Cup finalists, who have already collected the League Cup, to a treble.
A quadruple of trophies could soon become out of reach.
“The boys are more disappointed than I am,” Klopp said.
It’s a testament to Liverpool’s recovery this season that the title race is going this close to the wire. Being held by Tottenham was only the second time in 14 matches that Liverpool has dropped points, and the other time was against City.
While Tottenham is the only team unbeaten against City and Liverpool this season — with eight points from a possible 12 — drawing at Anfield also hurts Spurs' bid to qualify for the Champions League.
But the performance against the 2020 champion will galvanise Tottenham for the run-in.
“This was perfect in our game
plan, good team play,” Son said. “But we should have got more.”
The moment to take the lead was seized with a flowing attack in the 56th minute when Harry Kane laid the ball off to the left flank where Ryan Sessegnon squared for Son to finish simply into an unprotected net.
Changes to double the lead were minimal before D´ıaz’s shot in the 74th deflected off Rodrigo Bentancur and beat goalkeeper Hugo Lloris.
UNITED EMBARRASSED
It's five straight away losses for Manchester United — with 16 goals conceded in that run — after a 4-0 loss to Brighton for another low in Ralf Rangnick’s interim spell as manager.
Trailing 1-0 at halftime after Moises Caicedo's long-range strike, United conceded three goals in 11 minutes from the 49th as Marc
Cucurella, Pascal Gross and Leandro Trossard scored for a rampant Brighton team.
The best United can realistically hope for is a sixth-place finish and a spot in the Europa League.
CHELSEA COLLAPSES
Todd Boehly certainly got drama after taking his seat at Chelsea as a prospective part-owner, just not what he was hoping for as the west London club collapsed to draw against Wolverhampton 2-2.
Boehly appeared to live the emotional rollercoaster of the match from the early VAR calls disallowing two Chelsea goals, to the double from Chelsea striker Romelu Lukaku, to the equaliser by Wolves defender Conor Coady in the seventh minute of stoppage time.
A consortium fronted by the Los Angeles Dodgers’ part-owner agreed
on terms for the 2.5 billion-pound ($3.1 billion) purchase of Chelsea. The takeover needs Premier League and government approval.
Third-placed Chelsea is still not certain of securing Champions League qualification for the first full season of Boehly's reign.
WATFORD RELEGATED
Roy Hodgson couldn't keep Watford up in perhaps the final job of his long coaching career.
Watford's immediate return to the Championship was sealed by a 1-0 loss at Crystal Palace, for whom
Wilfried Zaha scored a penalty.
Burnley might yet join Watford and already-relegated Norwich in the Championship after losing at home to Aston Villa 3-1 for its first defeat under interim manager Mike Jackson.
It left Burnley two points clear of third-to-last Everton, which has two games in hand — the first at Leicester on Sunday.
Brentford, though, can start preparing for another season in the Premier League after beating Southampton 3-0 in its first top-flight campaign since 1947. —AP