It was a stunning game of football, but also one which Liverpool should have won.
If you take the pattern of the game and the best chances, maybe Tottenham deserved something out of the game. But when you score a goal in stoppage time to make it 2-1 at home against a top six rival, you really have to be winning.
Yet again, Mohamed Salah got himself on the scoresheet for the club he only joined in the summer. A stunning campaign filled with pace, skill and – importantly – goals have lit up a league which didn’t need to be hyped any more than it already was. But at the other end, that’s where Liverpool have problems.
Still, you have to wonder where the Reds would be this season without their main man. And after just three minutes at Anfield he was already getting himself on the scoresheet. It may have been a lucky break, or a comedy of errors, to set him in behind the Tottenham defence, but there was nothing lucky about the cool finish.
His second goal, though, was pure silky class, weaving his way through the despairing bodies strewn inside the Spurs box, with no speed or momentum to take him past players, and only his own devilish jinkery to take him to goal.
They weren’t his only contributions on an evening when Salah was an efficient threat, rather than the main thorn in Spurs’ side.
Two goals lit up the Anfield air, but his four dribbles and four shots were a contribution to a side who were rarely in control of the ball. Liverpool had 35% of the possession, despite being at home, and they lived more on the counter-attack – their reward for taking the lead so early.
That meant Salah had to be efficient. He only got the chance to make 22 passes all game, fewer than all the Spurs players with the exception of Son Heung-Min, Harry Kane and the second half substitutes, but still more than every Liverpool player apart from the full-backs Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson.
And yet, despite that he still managed to complete four dribbles, shoot four times and play two key passes, showing what an effective player Salah can be. We know how good he is in a team who are dominating games, but we’re seeing more and more how deadly he can be even in the games where Jurgen Klopp’s side have to dig deep and play on the break.
His contribution should have been enough for all three points, given the lateness of his second goal. But once again, it’s at the other end where Liverpool fell down. It would be wonderful to see just how important Salah could be in a team who could keep the opposition out at the other end.
