PREMIER LEAGUE
Power and the gory to Kop stars
goal for the Reds, to be taken to London’s Moorfields Eye Hospital accompanied by Liverpool doctor Andy Massey.
A statement on Liverpool’s website said: “A hospital examination confirmed an abrasion of the eye, but there will be no lasting damage.”
Firmino will now have to be reassessed ahead of Tuesday’s Champions League blockbuster with Paris Saint-germain.
Boss Jurgen Klopp added: “I only saw the incident from around 60 yards but for sure, it’s not comfortable for him.”
The win at Wembley saw Liverpool make it five wins from five – but Klopp admitted his stars aren’t perfect.
Goals in either half by Georginio Wijnaldum and Firmino helped Liverpool maintain their 100 per cent start to the campaign despite Erik Lamela’s consolation goal in injury time and a nearmiss penalty shout by Spurs.
Klopp said: “I am long enough in this business to know that nobody plays a perfect season. Not even Manchester City last year played the perfect season.
Crazy
“It’s still early. Five games, fantastic that we won all of them, fantastic that we improved. This was by far the best performance of the season.
“I like that development. We have to do it again and again and again. We will if we can. This game was really good from my side and the best we have played in my time here against Tottenham.
“My squad is really good and I’m happy with how we played but we even had problems today so we will have problems in the season. How do we deal with that?
“I have no idea. I’m not the personality to wait for problems but I’m old enough to know they will come.”
All the problems yesterday belonged to Mauricio Pochettino who saw his stars beaten for a second successive game.
But the Spurs boss turned his fire on the match officials for not giving his side a late spot-kick after Heung-min Son was felled in the box by Sadio Mane.
Pochettino said: “Liverpool were better. We competed, we were close, and the action at the end was crazy and the challenge on Son should have been a penalty.
“Then the result would have been different.” ONCE it was player celebrations that grabbed the attention but Jurgen Klopp’s double fist-pump is the one dominating the landscape so far this season.
It’s become as much a part of Liverpool’s routine as three points on match day.
As he showed against West Ham in their opening game there can always be a variation on the theme.
Klopp (left) was at it again yesterday with his trademark commemoration of another important three points.
This time it was the traditional frenetic pumping action to mark Roberto Firmino’s decisive goal to put Liverpool 2-0 in front early in the second half at Wembley.
But however he executes it the significance is still the same – and it’s becoming a symbol that Liverpool are undeniably building something big.
Klopp is doing his best to underplay what’s unfolding in the early days of competition and that’s understandable.
Liverpool were once mischievously accused of being champions of April back in 2014 when the title beckoned and then slipped away – literally.
Now after five games and maximum points Liverpool have the distinct look of champions. The key components are all in place – players, tactics and desire. And they’ve been bolstered by the unseen factor that categorises all big contenders – momentum.
In the next calendar month we will know just how potent this Kop challenge really is. For after Tuesday’s Champions League clash against Paris Saint-germain Liverpool go to Chelsea and then entertain Manchester City at Anfield. Liverpool weren’t flawless by any means. But in Virgil van Dijk they have a beast of a defender who yesterday had Harry Kane is his pocket. In midfield Naby Keita and opening goalscorer Georginio Wijnaldum are drilled to perfection and in attack it was Mane’s turn to create mayhem, Firmino’s time to score a key goal and Mo Salah on the rota to take a back seat. Yes, they should have scored a few goals more and the late panic wouldn’t have happened. But this was more than revenge for the last time they turned up here to play Spurs 11 months ago and were drubbed 4-1. The scoreline might paint a distorted picture of a tight contest. And a last-gasp penalty for Tottenham after Sadio Mane took Hueng-min Son’s standing leg might even have earned Mauricio Pochettino’s stars an undeserved penalty and a 2-2 draw. But the real story at Wembley was the way for 90 minutes Liverpool nonchalantly neutralised Spurs who look a pale shadow of the side who recently rocked up at Old Trafford and clipped Manchester United 3-1. Erik Lamela’s tidy finish for Spurs came in the 93rd minute – but