Tottenham could not make their numerical advantage count on Sunday night when they hosted Liverpool at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium as they were held to a 2-2 draw by Jurge Klopp's men.
The North London side, who were playing for the first time in two weeks after seeing three of their previous games postponed due to Covid-19 breakout in their camp and those of their opponents were changed in five positions as Antonio Conte resulted to a back five.
Jurgen Klopp was still without Dutch defender, Virgil van Dijk and continued with a centre back pairing of Joel Matip and Ibrahima Konate, while changing his entire midfield trio from their win against Newcastle.
Trent Alexander Arnold almost turned provider in the first 120 seconds when his cross was meant infield by Andy Robertson, who sent his header wide, before the England full back saw his low shot from the edge of the box parried by Hugo Lloris.
Spurs had the first real goalscoring opportunity, thanks to a fine move by Emerson Royal on the right side, whose cross was collected by Harry Kane and the England captain his his shot on the turn, only to be blocked by a well-timed slide tackle from Konate.
Kane was not going to be denied on the second asking barely 60 seconds later in the 13th minute as he put his team ahead. A through ball on the inside right from Tanguay Ndombele allowed the England forward to slot past Alisson Becker into the bottom left corner. He almost turned provider moments later when he led a counter and found Heung-Min Son with the final ball, but the South Korean hit the ball on the slide and couldn't hit the target.
With 24 minutes played, Lloris was to be thanked for keeping his team's lead intact when he saved from a Naby Keita follow up effort, after the initial shot by Sadio Mane was blocked by Davidson Sanchez.
His opposite number, Alisson also made a fine fingertip save to deny Dele Alli from extending the home team's lead, before Diogo Jota levelled things up in the 35th minute with a header into the top corner from an Andy Robertson cross.
The momentum had swung in favour of Liverpool and Spurs would be wondering where they would have been by half-time if not for the tripled save made by Lloris to deny first, a deflected effort from Mane and a double effort from Alexander Arnold in the closing stages of the first half.
While Tottenham were busy making claims for a penalty after Dele went down in the Liverpool box under pressure from Alexander Arnold, their visitors were hitting on the counter on the other end.
The Reds reached their hosts' goal in split seconds as Robertson sent his cross towards Mohammed Salah, who couldn't connect well with his header. Lloris reacted quickly to beat the rebound away from Mane, but the ball fell to Alexander Arnold, who whipped in a cross cum shot that Robertson went low to head home.
In quick response, the hosts responded with 15 minutes to play and grabbed their equalizer after Alisson's howler. The Brazilian stopper raced to clear a through ball from Ben Davies, who tried to play in Son. The goalkeeper missed his kick and left Son with an empty net to score.
Shortly after, Robertson was sent off for a reckless tackle on Emerson. Referee Paul Tierney had initially issued a yellow card to the left back, but reversed his decision for a red after going to the monitor for a review. Nonetheless, the Reds were able to hold their own for the point.
**Concluding Thoughts**
That was one of the most interesting games I've seen in a very long while, especially involving Tottenham. Even they (Spurs) would agree that it was their best performance so far this season by a wide margin as Antonio Conte remains unbeaten in the league since taking over.
The urgency with which they played was intense and for keen observers, it would have been noticed that Spurs came with a single plan; to exploit the holes between the Liverpool defence.
For almost all of their attacks, the moves were similar. Once they approached the final third, the ball was sent in between two Liverpool defenders, one of which led to Son's goal. Were it not for their profligacy, they could have wrapped up the game in the first half.
Liverpool visibly felt the absence of Virgil van Dijk. His absence showed a lack of leadership and cohesion between the two centre back pairing. Should they face a clinical side, they would pay for the lapses in their defence. Klopp really needs to find a solution, despite being lethal upfront, having scored 50 league goals already this season, they have conceded 15, the most of the top three.
The only blemish I think that game had was officiating. I strongly believe that Robertson's sending off shouldn't have been. He tried to clear the ball and it was even his chin that cleared Emerson. If that was a red card, why did Kane get away with his lunge on the defender in the first half? Are they double standards in issuing these cards now?
Similar thing played out in the game between Arsenal and Leeds United. Granit Xhaka was not booked, not even a yellow card for his late lunge on Raphinha, but Joe Gelhardt was booked for a similar challenge on Takehiro Tomiyasu.
These officials really need to up their game, especially now that VAR is involved. They should also get to review games and their varying decisions for similar cases.
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