Liverpool continue to put the league on notice with statement performances, but their win at Spurs could be one of the biggest of the lot…
‘TIS the season.
And it’s developing into a season where all sorts of goodwill is coming at The Reds from all sorts of angles.
This weekend was just the latest in a litany of gifts. Defeats for the Manchester teams, a draw for Chelsea, and Ange Postecoglou deciding that the best way to beat Liverpool was to crack on with his usual gung-ho tactics rather than shoring everything up. Cheers, mate.
The Tottenham manager says he’s so bored with stating the obvious about his injury issues that he’s not going to bother answering questions about it anymore. In that spirit, I’ll try not to remind him that he celebrated a victory against Liverpool last season despite two charitable red cards, a last-minute own goal and the astonishing incompetence of the officials.
Ange didn’t seem to have a problem with any of those things at the time and painted it as anything but a jammy win. His players even had the gall to do a lap of honour to celebrate their lottery win. They didn’t feel in the mood this time.
I really wanted a big win there to wipe away the stain of last season, but I didn’t expect that.
I feel for the manager to some extent. This league is so fast and so brutally cruel that it’s often hard to get a toehold, never mind consistency. You can go from (just) getting past Manchester United midweek only to get Liverpool on Sunday. And Liverpool took his side to the cleaners.
Arne Slot seems to be managing things a lot better. He too has been under a certain amount of pressure given the draws with Newcastle and Fulham, and the nagging doubt of a leaky defence.
He was keen to point out that not all is rosy in the garden as we keep conceding. I agree with Carragher on this. Maybe that’s a good thing. There’s always something to work on. Without hard work and improvement, wins just become vanity until fate bites back.
A 3-6 scoreline is a statement signed in monoliths. It’s a tennis score. It’s a nonsense. It shouldn’t happen. Spurs away should be one of those games where a point is a fair result. It shouldn’t be a hammering. Liverpool have walked away from Tottenham Hotspur now. Liverpool made the idea of jeopardy in that fixture a nonsense.
Arne Slot won’t be thinking that. Arne Slot will be thinking about Leicester City. Arne Slot will be thinking about those conceded goals. Arne Slot won’t be thinking about May. But it’s difficult for us not to.
Four points clear, a game in hand, six ahead of Arsenal, Forest and Bournemouth with more points than Manchester City (though I’m still not falling for any of this calamity talk – everyone has been burned before, everyone knows the pain) and The Reds just keep winning and winning.
If only the contracts were sorted. They have to sort them out.
There was a moment in the run-up to the first goal when the ball was squared to Trent. The world could see Lucho’s run but Trent doesn’t have the same view. He isn’t high on the gantry and somehow has to put the ball exactly where it’s needed to give us a chance.
I didn’t even celebrate it. I merely nodded like it was a computer game. That goes there and then that will go there. 1-0 Liverpool. That’s what Trent can do.
There was a moment in the second half when Spurs were breaking on the left. One of their lads cut in dangerously and it looked like another goal was forthcoming. Virgil van Dijk didn’t. Virgil van Dijk stuck a boot out and calmly guided it out for a corner. A corner he knew he could handle.
Virgil van Dijk can do calm in the same way Fraser Forster can do fraught. You need calm at the back. That’s what Virgil can do.
There was a moment in the second half where Mo Salah went past Billy Liddell’s record in the all-time goalscoring charts. Even my Blue Dad would have been made up with that. Justice of the Peace Billy Liddell once fined my Dad £25 for after hours drinking and the old man bore a grudge.
Billy Liddell’s goalscoring feats were and are remarkable. Mo Salah’s gone past that and wants more. That’s what Mo Salah can do.
A 3-6 scoreline is a statement.
You shouldn’t have statement games. Managers don’t like them as they tend to mean recalibration of expectation. Arne Slot will see the game as just three more points on the road, but points that are totally irrelevant now. Only Boxing Day matters.
But that’s to him. Liverpool annihilated Spurs yesterday. Liverpool annihilated a challenge. Liverpool made the league sit up and groan.
Liverpool can do that.
‘Tis the season.
