Liverpool beat Tottenham to consolidate their position at the top of the Premier League for Christmas.
Luis Diaz opened the scoring at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium after a precise cross from Trent Alexander-Arnold before Alexis Mac Allister doubled the lead when he headed in from close range.
The home side hit back with a curling effort from James Maddison but Arne Slot’s team showed their class with a swift counter-attack just before half-time, which Dominik Szoboszlai converted after winning the initial flick-on, and two second-half strikes from Mohamed Salah.
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Dejan Kulusevski and Dominic Solanke scored twice for the hosts, before Díaz scored again late on, despite the final results already being decided.
The 6-3 win leaves Liverpool four points behind second-placed Chelsea with a total of 39 and a game in hand before the Boxing Day matches. Tottenham remains in 11th place.
Here our writers break down the key talking points of the game…
Heading into this fixture, Tottenham were the fast starters of the Premier League and Liverpool had begun slowly in recent matches.
Tottenham had scored nine goals in the opening 15 minutes of league games this season, more than any other team in the division. They have also conceded the fewest in that time, just one.
But Slot’s side didn’t read the script and instead started much quicker than their opponents. They did not give the home side a moment to breathe from the first whistle as Diaz and Szoboszlai led a relentless press.
– OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) December 22, 2024
It allowed Liverpool to build momentum, forcing Ange Postecoglou’s side to go long frequently to regain possession.
Salah had five attempts on goal before the 20th minute, and also hit the crossbar, but failed Fraser Forster’s test.
Any thought that Liverpool would fail to score while they were at their most sensible disappeared with Diaz’s opener goal in the 23rd minute. By the 30th minute, Liverpool had controlled 10 shots and 23 touches in the opponent’s area, compared to Tottenham’s two shots and 4 touches in the area.
Facing Salah represented the biggest obstacle Archie Gray and Djed Spence have faced since being included in the Spurs starting XI. It is a great challenge for Spence, who made his third consecutive debut after months of settling for cameos from the bench and betting on the left despite having the right foot.
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Salah is one of the most productive players on the whole and was going to sneak into threatening positions. In the 16th minute, Spence made a very good double block to prevent the goal. Seconds later, the Egyptian foreigner turned and beat both men before firing a right-footed shot that hit the crossbar.
Spence and Gray did the best they could but needed more help and protection from Tottenham’s midfielders. There were too many occasions, especially in the second half as they chased a goal, when Liverpool swarmed at them on the counter.
They looked like they were facing waves of attacks and the most productive example was the play that led to Salah’s first goal. Gray and Radu Dragusin faced off against five Liverpool attackers and, despite the 18-year-old’s more productive efforts who blocked a cross from Cody Gakpo and then stopped Szoboszlai’s shot on the line, Salah had an undeniable touch.
It was a bruising experience for Gray and Spence that they will surely learn from.
Since his first competitive match as Liverpool head coach at Ipswich Town, Arne Slot has been under pressure and wants to win duels. With Liverpool and Tottenham facing off in formations almost 4-3-3 and 4-2-3-1, this meant a lot of long passes and balls in the moment. Szoboszlai’s positional awareness and header passes made the difference.
Tottenham went particularly direct by their standards, and frequently Liverpool’s back four were forced to return the ball aerially rather than bring it down. Szoboszlai had five headed passes in the first half and completed four, flicking it on to a midfielder who could get Liverpool out on the wings. Collectively, Liverpool completed 15 of their 18 headed passes and won four out of five aerial duels in the first half.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) December 22, 2024
Szoboszlai’s last five came from a hopeful long ball from Alexander-Arnold after the full-back got into trouble and Tottenham pressed. Szoboszlai won the aerial duel against Dragusin and continued his pass as Liverpool pulled Tottenham apart, beating Forster thanks to Salah’s assist.
Just days after beating Manchester United to reach the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup, Spurs came back down to earth. It was going to be a difficult task for Ange Postecoglou’s team to get a positive result against the league leaders.
Slot was able to rest some members of his squad in their midweek win over Southampton, but nine of Tottenham’s starting 11 have started 3 games in the last 8 days. They already lacked power and facing this edition of Liverpool proved too difficult.
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The real concern was how easy Liverpool found it to create opportunities. They scored from crosses and on the counter. For Szoboszlai’s effort just before half-time, they played through Tottenham’s press. They had so many different tools at their disposal to hurt their opponents.
Lots of people inside the stadium were fearing the worst when Liverpool made it 5-1. They were constantly creating good opportunities and swarming all over Spurs. Kulusevski and Solanke’s goals made the scoreline slightly more respectable, but this is the third home game in a row where Spurs have conceded at least three times. Postecoglou will call it entertaining but does this path lead to sustainable success long term?
Liverpool are the most sensible in the league at Christmas. That sounds good. If you had told Slot what the outcome of his first months in England would be, he would have bitten your hand.
Chelsea’s defeat at Goodison Park in a 0-0 draw against Everton meant that Liverpool were guaranteed to be top of the table on December 25, but had the chance to move four points ahead.
After successive draws in the division, Liverpool had not won a Premier League match since their 2-0 victory over Manchester City on December 1. That was not helped by the postponed Merseyside derby, but Liverpool had seen their lead cut to one point from nine before they kicked off.
It is the most productive way to get back on track and recreate the gap. They were dominant from start to finish and ruthless in front of goal.
They were dominant for the opening 60 minutes to run into a 5-1 lead.
However, the final 20 minutes drew Slot’s ire as his team conceded two goals, allowing Tottenham to fall behind. Diaz’s goal and Liverpool’s sixth restored the three-goal lead.
Joe Gomez and Szoboszlai were two of the many standout players as Liverpool made their biggest name yet, and they still have a game in hand.
“I think I’ve been very patient over the last 18 months, sitting here, answering the same questions over and over again. If other people need me to replace my approach, I probably won’t replace it. We do it for a reason: We do it because we believe that will help us succeed.
“If other people do not perceive the cases in which we are now, the demanding situations that we have from a team attitude, which are as obvious as they have to be made. I feel that other people think that I deserve to become a transfer and replace myself and miraculously we It will become a better team. That’s right. I’m going to continue, stay focused on building this team so that it is the team we need.
“In the interim, we are going to have to accept there are going to be challenges along the way.”
“For 60 minutes we did everything we had to do,” Slot told BBC Sport. “We were comfortable and intelligent with the ball. The most important thing is that we work very, very hard. But the same players, with the same quality, idea that 10 or 15 minutes without running so much.
“Tottenham have enough quality to score goals if you give them opportunities. You have to be as level-headed as possible in your play throughout the game, and we didn’t do that.
Thursday, December 26: Nottingham Forest (A), Premier League, 3pm GMT, 10am ET
Thursday, December 26: Leicester City (H), Premier League, 8pm GMT, 3pm ET