Neil Atkinson’s post-match review for The Anfield Wrap after Tottenham Hotspur 3 Liverpool 6 in the 2024-2025 Premier League season…
MERRY Christmas. Joy and goodwill to all.
So much joy. So much goodwill today in North London. Ladles of the stuff as the game exploded all over everyone.
It is the best game you know, especially on days like this. I used to think that was actually cricket, but football has edged ahead especially because of days like today. Today is the purest distillation of so many of the good things of the game, brio and gusto and other things ending in o.
Christmas isn’t halfway. Everyone else on 17, Merseyside on 16. Christmas isn’t halfway, but Liverpool are top of both piles on Christmas Day. Top and clear.
Today they came up against this league’s most unique challenge. Tottenham Hotspur are a better side than 11th, but also just an odder proposition than anything.
I like them. When I don’t like them is when they drop points against poorer sides. Their entire outlook is about facing you up 11 versus 11 and saying go on then. The issue when they face Liverpool is we can go: “Yep, absolutely. We’re better. Have a big bowl of this.”
First hour today, Liverpool were immense. Big bowls being doled out everywhere. They had hard lines being punished for their only lapse, but got themselves to 1-5 by being simply better in every area.
The only question mark was Dejan Kulusevski versus Andy Robertson, but the former is the best attacking midfielder in the country and he still ultimately comes off second best.
It’s Liverpool’s game. My favourite goal is Dominik Szoboszlai’s. Because he deserves it. Because we deserve it. Because it cuts their windpipe. But also because I like its vagaries made of flesh.
Trent Alexander-Arnold plays it into an area. It isn’t an aimed ball, but one that has been discussed; worked on. Szoboszlai’s header is the ideal. But it is into an area. Discussed. Worked on.
So much of football isn’t surgical, but is percentages. These are, in lots of ways, the best bits. Mo Salah holds and holds, waiting for the moment and then the moment is there, then Szoboszlai nutmegs the keeper. Then his teammates are delighted because they love him and they love the moment.
Szoboszlai’s tempo was the game’s tempo; Liverpool’s tempo. That’s the perfect trick and that he gets the 95 is almost the perfect compliment. He is the metronome of choice.
I say I love that Szoboszlai goal, but then I love the Joe Gomez punched pass. I love the Szoboszlai square ball. I love the Diaz through ball for Gakpo for what becomes the fifth. I love the Andy Robertson tackle when if he doesn’t make it, all hell can break loose behind him.
I am left supporting football as a close second to Liverpool. Indeed, let me tell you what I think about Dominic Solanke and Dejan Kulesevski. I adore them.
Against any other side you could make an argument that the fourth and fifth goals are stat padding. They aren’t important. But this is the aforementioned Postecoglou Tottenham. You need to finish them, and then finish them, and then finish them. That’s what Salah does, what he provides. He ensures the game is Liverpool’s, as he has so often.
In this season, this top of the league at Christmas season, this season when all the smart punditry class argued we’d get our comeuppance, it has been Salah who has led the fight to make the point that there will not be any comeuppance for us. We’re too good, too well run, too many great players. We’re Liverpool and you can have a big bowl of that too.
Salah among the greatest. Literally surpassing Billy Liddell. My grandad’s favourite player surpassed by my favourite player.
Liddell was everything at Liverpool for the longest time, making laughable the idea that Steven Gerrard or even Mo Salah carried the club in comparison. He was who everyone paid to see. The very best in a lean era. The sole shining light when it was dark.
Salah is the very best in an era of plenty. The shiniest star. Which is harder? Which is more impressive? Which is easier to score through? So many clubs haven’t had players who have scored as many as Liddell or Salah. This club has had both and with Salah there is even more to come.
Even despite Salah, it still needed more from Luis Diaz. His the first goal and the last, and his performance marvellous. But then whose wasn’t? The right back passes the ball like a dream. Alexis Mac Allister is first to everything that matters when the game is live. Ryan Gravenberch is just a rock.
They are top and they are top for a reason. They are the best ones.
This game this week was like this beacon of stress and opportunity. We see enough over the 90 to understand why. These are capable of scoring against anyone. The goals come in a different order and maybe they never come at all.
But where this weekend ends up is where I wanted to be. Where I expected to be. Where we should be. Four clear of Chelsea and five clear of our biggest rivals – Arsenal, with everyone else in the distance. It’s Christmas and we have been the best side so far.
I’d love to give you a smart one liner. I’d love a lyric. Delight in a reference. Maybe even a carol in a clever way. All I have is the obvious…
Come and adore them.
Liverpool came through for me today when I most needed them. Come and adore them. We know, more than anyone, that being top of the pops Christmas Day doesn’t mean we’ll get what we want in May, but it is better than the alternative. The scent of silver on our fingers. The sound of silver in my ears. Talk to me.
Into these.
All my love. All my goodwill. All my joy.
Download The Anfield Wrap’s free app for Liverpool FC podcasts, video and writing all in one place…
“Liverpool were the grown ups in the room, it was always at arms length and Liverpool are top of the league at Christmas!”
“It’s all we can ask for…”
Our post match reaction is on its way… pic.twitter.com/084vmZbxvi
— The Anfield Wrap (@TheAnfieldWrap) December 22, 2024
