Liverpool back on track against woeful Spurs
Roberto Firmino ended Liverpool’s 483-minute goal drought in the English Premier League to set the champions on their way to a 3-1 win over Tottenham and revive their faltering title defence yesterday.
Trent Alexander-Arnold and Sadio Mane also netted as Liverpool ended a five-game winless run in a league they dominated so resoundingly last season.
The victory, which lifts Liverpool into fourth, started with VAR ruling out an opener for Tottenham when Son Heung-min was adjudged to be offside.
Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg reduced the deficit to 2-1 with a powerful strike shortly after Alexander-Arnold scored at the start of the second half, but the Liverpool right back set up Mane for a third that sealed victory.
While Liverpool moved within four points of leaders Manchester City, Jose Mourinho’s Tottenham are eight points adrift in sixth after their first defeat in 2021, albeit with a game in hand.
And Mourinho faces an anxious wait to discover the extent of Harry Kane’s injury after the striker went down in the first half clutching first his right ankle and then his left before being replaced at the interval.
There are problems at the back for the north London club, who are in danger of failing to qualify for the Champions League for a second consecutive season. While Liverpool played midfielder Jordan Henderson at centre back due to injuries, it was Tottenham’s back three looking more fragile.
How different, though, this game might have gone had Son not been marginally offside when released by Kane before scoring.
Liverpool were more threatening going forward after that, with Mane setting up the opener in the fourth minute of stoppage time at the end of the first half. Firmino tapped in after Mane passed across the face of goal, scoring Liverpool’s first league goal since December 27.