Liverpool benefited from a resurgent Mohamed Salah to grab a vital 2-1 victory at the expense of Tottenham Hotspur at the home of the North London side on Sunday (6 November).
The Reds headed into the game on the back of four wins, four draws and four defeats in the 2022-23 Premier League campaign, and no one could have predicted which Liverpool side would turn up at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium given how inconsistent Jurgen Klopp’s side have been all season.
It took them 11 minutes to open the scoring, though, as Salah controlled a pass from Darwin Nunez in the box before firing a shot into the bottom corner, leaving Hugo Lloris rooted to the spot.
Ivan Perisic came close to drawing Antonio Conte‘s side level minutes later, but his header could only hit the upright.
An error from Eric Dier in the 40th minute handed Salah a chance to double his side’s lead, and with only the Spurs goalie to beat, the Egyptian forward made no mistake, chipping the ball over the Frenchman to put Liverpool firmly in control heading into the break.
Tottenham emerged from the break with a lot of intensity as they chased a comeback, and they came close to pulling one back shortly after the restart, but Perisic was unlucky again, hitting his shot against the frame of the goal.
However, Spurs finally got their goal as Harry Kane fired in Dejan Kulusevski’s pass beyond Alisson, and they would have thought they had enough time to grab an equaliser with 20 minutes still left on the clock.
However, Rodrigo Bentancur could not connect with Kane’s headed flick in the 89th minute, and it was the only clear chance Tottenham had as Liverpool defended their lead with everything to hold on to their fifth victory of the season.
The Reds moved to eighth in the table as a result of the win and will be looking to secure all three points again when they host struggling Southampton at Anfield on Saturday (12 November).
Klopp‘s side were boosted during the week as they progressed from the third round of the League Cup after defeating Derby County on penalties, and that should keep them in high spirits ahead of the Saints’ visit.
Liverpool missed out on the title by just a point last term but have found themselves 15 points off table leaders Arsenal with a third of the campaign played, and the World Cup break could do them a lot of good as they could do with a reset.
Spurs would have been gutted by the loss as it saw Newcastle move ahead of them into third place.
Conte’s men have won eight games, drawn twice and lost four others, and they were dealt a massive blow in their bid to end their trophy drought as Nottingham Forest dumped them out of the League Cup on Wednesday (9 November).
The North Londoners were handed a 2-0 defeat by the Premier League new boys, and they will be keen to quickly bounce back with a victory when they host Leeds United at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday.
