Tottenham 3-6 Liverpool: Mohamed Salah and Luis Diaz score braces as Reds run riot in remarkable game to go four points clear at the top of the Premier League – with pressure heaped on Ange Postecoglou

Weren’t you entertained? That was the question Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou asked himself after his team beat Manchester United 4-3 in the Carabao Cup last Thursday.

Yes, we were and indeed we were once again here in North London. It was, especially towards the end, an extraordinary game of football and this great modern stadium has witnessed 23 goals in its last three games.

But that’s where the good news for Tottenham begins and ends. Because the truth is that they were beaten here by Arne Slot’s league leaders, just as they were beaten by Chelsea two weeks ago. Late goals can flatter teams and they did it here just as they did a fortnight ago.

Liverpool were so superior throughout the game that it was quite surprising at times. They had a 5-1 lead with half an hour left and that’s when some Spurs fans decided to go home. At that point, the smart thing would have been for Liverpool to score six, seven or eight. Only God knows where Postecoglou would have been.

As it was, it was the Spurs who scored a couple. For a moment, the mood changed and Tottenham must be the only place in the country where the home team can concede six goals and still be heard roaring with five minutes remaining.

So, yeah, this was wildly entertaining once again. If you have a ticket for a Tottenham game in the next few weeks, put it in your sock and make sure you use it.

However, the Spurs were outplayed and outplayed for the most part. Liverpool were magnificent overall. At times it was pertinent to wonder if they had played better this season and this prepares them well for the Christmas and New Year period.

Mo Salah scored twice to overtake the great Billy Liddell on Liverpool’s scoring charts and played with a hunger and desire that simply terrifies defenders. Hungarian midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai was not far behind and scored a goal, while Luis Diaz, who was cruelly denied a goal by the mother of all VAR errors here last season, managed to score two.

The other goal, Liverpool’s second, was headed by Alexis MacAllister and the way the goals were distributed was indicative of a complete team performance only marred by two late lapses of concentration.

The Spurs, short on bodies and in need of more experience in the ranks, looked like a tired and stressed football team here. They only came to life when humiliation called them. Postecoglou will continue to seek solace in rhetoric about talent and ambition, but he will know he has real problems. His team is eleventh and heading south.

Liverpool, on the other hand, are the real deal, the best team in the country, and at half-time they had taken 13 shots on goal. The only surprise was that only three of them had entered.

The leaders had been absolutely dominant and the only thing that ruined what would have been a perfect first 45 minutes was a mistake by MacAllister that gave James Maddison a goal out of nowhere when the score was just 2-0.

Liverpool, able to make changes after their midweek victory in the Carabao Cup, looked energetic, decisive and hungry. Man for man Spurs, the same team that beat United here on Thursday, looked tired, leggy and quite anxious. When you’re in that kind of physical and mental condition, Liverpool are the last team you want to face.

Slot’s team could have scored in the third minute and that set the tone for the first hour of the game. Spurs goalkeeper Fraser Forster, traumatized perhaps by two foot errors in the win over United, failed his first test here, passing the ball straight to Salah on the edge of the home penalty area. Salah shot early, which was understandable. But when the ball hit the side netting, he may have noticed an unmarked Szoboszlai to his left. If Salah had passed the ball in, his teammate would surely have scored.

However, Liverpool could not refuse. They were in a rapacious mood and perhaps the only surprise was that they had to wait until halfway through the first half to score the first goal.

Salah sensed an opportunity against Spurs left-back Djed Spence. The Tottenham player started the game well, but the levels of concentration required to face the best striker in the Premier League are enormous and over time Salah began to find space and cause problems.

The Spurs looked to counterattack when they could. Postecoglou’s team will always be dangerous on the counterattack. But they couldn’t control the ball enough to generate any kind of sustained pressure and when they didn’t, Liverpool found it too easy to play through the middle.

Forster saved from Salah in the eleventh minute after he was hit by a sublime pass from Trent Alexander-Arnold and then Szoboszlai’s follow-up was blocked. Cody Gakpo then fired over after a run from Diaz set him up before Salah sent three defenders the wrong way on the right side of the penalty area to fire a shot against the bar and over.

Five minutes after that, with Spurs still failing to threaten properly, Liverpool scored. Alexander-Arnold advanced into space on the right and when he delivered a cross into the area, Diaz timed his run behind Radu Dragusin perfectly to duck and head into the corner of the net.

It was a great goal and everything Liverpool deserved. Shortly afterwards, when Forster saved Diaz’s low shot, Liverpool were averaging a shot every two and a half minutes. Not bad for a visiting team.

The next one they recorded, a header, went in. This time the cross went to Andy Robertson at the other end. Szoboszlai challenged two Spurs defenders on the edge of the six-yard line as we expected Forster to come out, and as the ball rose, MacAllister arrived to head in from close range.

If the first goal had been a good goal, this one was complicated. On the sideline, Postecoglou seemed a little distraught. His team didn’t seem to respond. They seemed tired and nervous. But after Alisson, as necessary, held on to Pape Matar Sarr’s low volley from 20 yards in the 41st minute, the home team actually scored.

MacAllister had time to control the ball 30 meters from his own goal, but his touch was strong and when Dejan Kulusevski robbed him, Maddison picked up the pieces to score a good low goal to the left of Alisson from a few meters closer to the goal .

Could this goal that came out of nowhere change the game? For a minute or so we wondered, but then Salah read Szoboszlai’s header from Alexander-Arnold’s hacked clearance before anyone else and ran clear before feeding the Hungarian with an elegant ball back.

Szoboszlai, excellent throughout the game, took a touch to steady himself and then beat Forster comfortably to effectively seal the game before it reached the halfway mark.

Tottenham, booed by a minority at half-time, had only one hope: to score the next goal. But they didn’t.

They were competitive for the first ten minutes of the second half but then Robertson won the ball just outside his own area to allow Liverpool to run the length of the field through Diaz and Gakpo. When the Dutch striker pulled the ball back from the byline, Spurs had two half-chances to clear but were unable to and Salah picked up the pieces to score.

Spurs were now in mortal danger of embarrassment and they knew it. Three minutes later, Szoboszlai was able to run onto a direct clearance from Alisson and when he rounded Forster only the side netting prevented him from scoring Liverpool’s fifth goal before we had played an hour.

Then, ten seconds after the hour, Liverpool scored again when they broke through Postecoglou’s team on the left and converted another goal with ease when Szoboszlai cut the ball back to Salah.

Both goals in the second half looked like five-man goals. It was men against demoralized and disoriented boys and we still had half an hour left. In the 63rd minute, as some Spurs fans headed for the exits, Alexander-Arnold shot from distance and Forster touched the ball.

Total, abject humiliation drew him in, but it did not come. Not quite. Liverpool’s substitutions took some of their rhythm away and when Dominic Solanke played a pass to Kulusevski in the 73rd minute, the Swede scored with a volley.

Fair play to the Spurs for moving on and to their fans, those who stayed, for the way they continued to support them. Only a Postecoglou team could come to the end of a day like this and still believe, and when Brennan Johnson beat Alexander-Arnold in the air at the far post with seven minutes remaining, his header beat Virgil van Dijk to be finished off by Solanke on the scoreboard. stretch.

Briefly – just briefly – the Liverpool players looked a little stressed. This would be a clue I would waste. But after two minutes they attacked Tottenham to put an end to any type of recovery. This time the move was down the right and when Salah played Diaz in the corner, the Colombian stepped over Forster into the corner.