Tottenham Hotspur welcomed Liverpool to North London in Spurs’ final fixture prior to Christmas. A combination of red and white colors gave a festive feel to a challenging match, as Spurs looked to secure
their first Premier League win against the Reds in over two years. Thomas Frank made some big selection calls, bringing in young players Lucas Bergvall, Xavi Simons, and Archie Gray to start, but without fully going for it as he retained his Rodrigo Bentancur safety blanket. Arne Slot did similarly with Liverpool, as Alexander Isak started on the bench and Florian Wirtz started as Liverpool’s only real wide attacker.
A first half that lacked in quality also lacked in chances for both sides. Randal Kolo Muani possibly had the best opportunity of the first 45, heading a shot straight at Alisson after Djed Spence headed a Pedro Porro cross back across goal. Liverpool had an opportunity of their own, with Florian Wirtz forcing an excellent save from Guglielmo Vicario, the Italian pushing the ball wide with Liverpool attackers on hand for a tap-in. Outside of those two moments, however, the half was a pattern of failed transitions and poor giveaways.
The moment that really set the tone for the rest of the match though was a brain explosion from Xavi Simons. With Virgil van Dijk facing back towards his own goal, Xavi attempted to press and lunged in to try and win possession. He instead raked his studs down van Dijk’s calf, and after initially being shown a yellow by John Brooks, was deservedly shown a red after VAR intervened. Spurs were down to ten men, but still didn’t seem overawed by the challenge ahead, going into the half at nil-all.
Liverpool looked to make their numbers advantage count, making a half-time change and bringing in Alexander Isak for Conor Bradley. That change paid dividends with Isak opening the scoring. Cristian Romero played a shocking pass straight at a Liverpool player, with the ball falling to Hugo Ekitike. With the Spurs defense out of shape, Ekitike squared to Wirtz in space, who played in Isak, with the Swede finishing calmly past Vicario.
Brennan Johnson was brought on for Mohammed Kudus, with Thomas Frank trying to engineer a way back into the match for Spurs, with Kolo Muani soon going close. A driving, mazy run at the Liverpool defense almost created something out of nothing, with his deflected cross looping over Alisson and pinging off the crossbar as Johnson lurked. A looping effort at the other end though ended with a different result, as a header from Ekitike dropped into the top corner. Ekitike clearly shoved Romero, putting two hands into the Argentine’s back and sending him sprawling, but for some unknown reason the goal stood, with Romero seeing a yellow for showing his feelings on the ridiculous call.
More substitutions followed as Liverpool dropped deeper, seemingly comfortable in their two-goal lead until Richarlison narrowed the gap to one, latching onto a loose ball during a set piece scramble and finishing well past Alisson. The Brazilian forward was nearly in again as well, breaking in behind but unable to put a shot on target as three Liverpool defenders closed in on him.
Spurs’ mountain to climb though soon became an Everest as they went down to nine men. Romero was shown a second yellow for an ill-judged lash out at Ibrahima Konate. There wasn’t much in it, but it was stupid from Romero when on a yellow, and Brooks didn’t have much choice but to brandish the second caution. Even while down to nine, though, Spurs kept pushing for an equalizer – but none was forthcoming, and Spurs went down 1-2 in yet another home loss.
Reactions
- Was this Thomas Frank’s Chelsea moment? The fight shown by Spurs and willingness to throw everything at the wall to try and get a result, even while down to nine men, was impressive. They didn’t let up, even when it seemed everything (including but not limited to the referee) was against them.
- Speaking of which: my goodness, that was one of the most one-sided refereeing performances I’ve ever seen. The number of fouls awarded to Liverpool was absolutely ridiculous, with the Reds dropping left, right, and center, and John Brooks obliging. Of course, the same calls going the other way weren’t given, and Liverpool’s second goal should never have stood. Brooks will probably need an escort out of the stadium.
- That said, Xavi Simon’s red card was absolutely the right call. An absolutely idiotic challenge from the Dutchman, who was nowhere near the ball, and now he’s suspended for three matches through the festive period. Dumb dumb dumb.
- Dumb dumb dumb probably describes Romero’s second yellow well. Why do that, Cuti? Of course, he should never have been on a yellow in the first place.
- Are Liverpool the worst team we’ve played this season? As bad as Spurs were, they were really bad, unable to push forward without leaving themselves completely open to transition opportunities – a number of which Spurs had but utterly failed to capitalize on.
- On that point, Mohammed Kudus: What would you say you do here, exactly? Another in a list of frustrating performances. The guy can dribble. Dribbling is cool! But the dribbling was too often followed by a pass to nobody, an aimless cross, or a run out of play, and I lost count of the number of transitions he killed with poor decision making.
- Where to from here for Spurs? They are going to be short-handed now going into the busiest period of the year. It’s not great timing, and the pressure is only going to increase on Frank. Here’s hoping the team use this as a galvanizing moment, as opposed to folding under said pressure.
- COYS!
