Tottenham 2 Liverpool 1: match report

17 August 2009 09:49
This is what is termed an early test of a club's credentials; an opportunity to state intent; lay down a marker. Tottenham did just that with a victory far more emphatic and perhaps far more significant than the narrowness of the scoreline suggests. For Liverpool it was not quite the humiliation suffered by their Merseyside rivals, Everton, 24 hours earlier against that other club from north London, but they returned home last night chastened and in the knowledge that they already trail Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal by three points in the title race. It will reverberate. Margins will be tighter than ever this time round and Liverpool are already a shade behind the eight ball. And whisper it quietly around manager Rafael Benítez they really, really missed the influence of the recently-departed Xabi Alonso. Three points. Such was the wretchedness of their start to the campaign last season that it took Spurs until Oct 26 to accumulate that modest total. Indeed it is nine years since they won an opening-day fixture and when the Premier League computer spat out this encounter it wouldn't have been one welcomed at White Hart Lane. But expectations down the old High Road will now be rampant. Europe, even another tilt at the top four who knows? Manager Harry Redknapp understands he has a fine line to tread between trying to fulfil those ambitions and, if they don't happen, making falling short of them not appear to be a failure. In a sense they have slipped under the radar this season. The focus in the build-up has been elsewhere, mainly at Manchester City, while Spurs have, for once, quietly gone about their business of honing the squad Redknapp quickly assembled in January and is fine-tuning this summer. But there will now be a big white and blue blip crossing everyone's screens. Liverpool, meanwhile, were chaotic. They only lost two league games in the whole of last season and now it is one from one. They also ended this contest having lost their shape and with assistant manager Sammy Lee having lost his cool. He was sent to the stands for continually haranguing the fourth official, Stuart Attwell, while a furious Benítez pleaded imploringly, desperately, for penalties to be awarded against Benoît Assou-Ekotto for an alleged foul on substitute Andrei Voronin, easing him away, and then a handball from a close-range shot. Referee Phil Dowd waved them away. Assou-Ekotto had already made his mark, scoring with an exhilarating drive from 25 yards after Tom Huddlestone's free-kick was charged down, and it is with rich irony that Redknapp will reflect on the fact that both his side's goals came from defenders who have never previously scored in English football. After all, much has rightly been made of the impressive roster of strikers he now has at his disposal and he used all four of them yesterday. Sébastien Bassong got Spurs' second with a simple header from a free-kick, soon after Steven Gerrard had equalised with a penalty that was correctly awarded following Heurelho Gomes' felling of Glen Johnson. The Frenchman, signed for £8 million from Newcastle United, enjoyed a fine debut. It helped that, fresh from signing his new, improved four-year contract, Fernando Torres endured a frustrating afternoon, starved off opportunities and wasteful of the few he was afforded. It was the same result as when the sides met last season but it was such a different contest. Then Spurs were, by Redknapp's own admission, and in his vernacular, "battered" but somehow won this time they were doing the battering though there were self-inflicted wounds from Liverpool also with both Jamie Carragher and Martin Skrtel needing stitches after they clashed heads and the latter appearing groggy until he was finally substituted. Indeed had Robbie Keane, retained because Peter Crouch is short of match fitness, been more decisive with the three clear chances that fell his way, Liverpool could have been embarrassed. Instead he had a point-blank header, from a flick by the increasingly impressive Luka Modric, saved by Pepe Reina and then saw the goalkeeper push away his attempt to chip into the net when put clear by Modric again. Finally, Keane shot wildly over from Huddlestone's clever header into the area before he, eventually, trudged off sadly. Spurs' tactics were clear and bold. Push up, squeeze space, make Liverpool play it long with Harry wanting his side to, well, harry. Received wisdom has been that with Alonso gone Gerrard would, inevitably, go looking for the ball and he did just that. It meant Liverpool suffered. He was not in possession and when he was he was too far from goal. Benítez has surely spotted the imbalance and, though Lucas Leiva was far from being his worst performer, he must address matters. And quickly. He has Alberto Aquilani but he is neither fit nor a direct replacement for the Spanish midfielder. Much work is needed.

Source: Telegraph