SIMPLY THE BLESSED
After his penalty howler, the gods seemed to smile on Harry, Tottenham’s Mr Tonderful
AS Mo Salah celebrated his faultless impersonation of Lionel Messi, Harry Kane tilted his head back, looked to the heavens, and closed his eyes.
This doesn’t happen to me, he must have been thinking. Six minutes earlier, from the penalty spot, Kane had limply spurned the chance to give Spurs what would probably have been a winning lead. Now, Salah’s slaloming magnificence had surely handed Liverpool a slightly unlikely victory.
Yet Jurgen Klopp had barely made it back from his airpunching jaunt towards the Kop when eagle-eyed assistant Eddie Smart spotted Virgil van Dijk kneeing Erik Lamela.
Kane is brilliant and he is clearly blessed. If he had fallen in the Mersey last night, he would have been wearing your suit.
A 12-yard route to redemption, in front of a hostile Kop, was never going to be ignored.
A century of Premier League goals, a more-than-deserved point for slightly superior Spurs, a dollop of pure character. Mauricio Pochettino nailed it. “To score 100 Premier League goals is because you have big, big balls.” Quite.
Look, it’s a penalty, of course he should score, he’s supposed to be one of the world’s best strikers, after all.
But the pressure must have been cloying, not only because of that pathetic previous effort but because he was tasked with earning the point his teammates’ performance warranted.
That he emphatically completed his task tells you what you need to know about Kane.
“You can’t give me two tries,” Kane told a camera lens.
True but you can give two salutes to the man who seemed to be taking Liverpool a significant distance ahead of Spurs.
Step forward Salah. The early finish after Eric Dier had somehow put him clear looked routine but that is because Salah made it look wonderfully routine. The eyes to the near post, the finish to the far post.
There was nothing routine
about his second almost an hour and a half later, unless you are indeed Leo himself.
Quick-footedly spiriting himself between three defenders and then lifting a narrow-angled finish high into the net, it was a breathtaking moment from the goal-crazy Egyptian.
It was even more breathtaking than the Victor Wanyama strike that had put Tottenham level.
Loris Karius jabbed away a Christian Eriksen cross and Wanyama’s hit covered 25 yards in the blink of an eye.
Reeling, Dejan Lovren then got a touch to a Dele Alli pass that allowed Kane to be onside when tripping himself over a diving Karius.
Referee Jon Moss had no hesitation, unlike Kane, whose down-the-middle ploy was easily patted away by Karius.
Salah’s twisting run seemed to have twisted the knife but when linesman Smart was every bit his name, Moss took the advice and Kane took the bottom corner.
Predictably, Pochettino was as fulsome in his praise of the officials as Jurgen Klopp was in his condemnation.
The truth is they got key decisions right, including yet another diving caution for Alli, a player who needs to believe his talent is a better bet than trying to con the referee.
And the truth is that Spurs were worthy of a point, just as Salah’s sumptuous contribution was worthy of a point, just as Kane’s cojones were worthy of a point.
“100 Premier League goals and counting,” tweeted Kane.
Indeed and, as Pochettino suggested, there is a lot of counting left to be done.