Source: Daily_Mail
Tottenham 2 Liverpool 1: Stitched up by Harry! Rafa gets needle as Spurs win
Jamie Carragher was stapled together midway through the first half after a clash of heads and, by the looks of it, that is not the last patch-up job that will be performed at Liverpool this season.
The win that gave Tottenham three points on the opening day of the season for the first time in nine years — the team that day included Les Ferdinand, Darren Anderton and White Hart Lane’s public enemy No 1 Sol Campbell — already feels like a blow struck against Liverpool’s title ambitions.
Carragher collided with his partner Martin Skrtel and both needed treatment, but there is a stitched together quality about this Liverpool team, too, shorn of a major midfield influence in Xabi Alonso and looking increasingly threadbare on the bench.
Enlarge Assou-Ekotto
Catch me if you can: Tottenham's Benoit Assou-Ekotto charges off after scoring his first-half goal with Tom Huddlestone (left) and Luka Modric (headband) in pursuit while Liverpool's Dirk Kuyt (far right) is left distraught
It is ridiculously early for definitive pronouncements, obviously, but there was nothing here to give encouragement to those who went into the season thinking this, at last, will be Liverpool’s year in the Premier League.
‘We didn’t play well in the first half and clearly we have to improve,’ said manager Rafael Benitez.
The visit of Stoke City in midweek may be an unexpectedly tense affair. Benitez was furious that two late penalty appeals were denied by referee Phil Dowd — Liverpool assistant coach Sammy Lee was sent off for protesting — but his anguish only seemed to underline the general anxiety.
Liverpool’s main fault was one that was widely predicted: an Alonso-sized hole in the heart of midfield. Benitez was also critical of Liverpool’s possession and no official can be blamed for that.
They did not get the ball to Steven Gerrard in the way that Alonso did last season and while there is always resentment when Liverpool are branded a two-man team, there is little doubt that if Gerrard and Fernando Torres can be silenced, so will the talk of winning the title.
Carragher
Carragher and Skrtel were left bloodied and bruised after this collision at White Hart Lane
Carragher
Carragher was patched up after the accidental collision with Skrtel
This was another of those games that served as a reminder of the talents of Harry Redknapp, the Tottenham manager. So much more than the wheeler-dealer of popular legend, his team were perfectly organised to thwart Liverpool.
Benitez can moan but had either of the late penalty shouts been awarded it would have been a travesty; not least because neither appeal was particularly convincing.
Benoit Assou-Ekotto seemed to use his weight against substitute Andriy Voronin, as defenders do, rather than tripping him, and when the ball struck his arm moments later it was placed across his body to avoid a handball, rather than hung out to his side to gain advantage.
The penalty that Liverpool did get, when Heurelho Gomes, the Tottenham goalkeeper, brought down a marauding Glen Johnson was entirely justified.
Benitez thought Dowd needed glasses and would not be brave enough to give more than one penalty to the away team, but many would argue Liverpool’s problems ran deeper than the vagaries of officialdom. On Sunday’s performance, Tottenham would appear to have slipped under the radar this season.
Sammy Lee
Liverpool assistant boss Sammy Lee is sent off by Phil Dowd during the clash against Spurs
There has been mention of interlopers at the top, but predictions have focused on well-financed rivals, most particularly Manchester City. It will take more than one home win to revise those opinions, of course, but Tottenham looked mighty useful here.
Wilson Palacios was exceptional in the heart of midfield, leading Redknapp to draw comparison with Graham Roberts, a Tottenham warhorse from the days of victory in the 1984 UEFA Cup.
Redknapp said the club have not had that sort of player in recent years and perhaps that is what has been missing. Palacios was the driving force behind the win, the outstanding performer in a team who justifiably drew many superlatives. Liverpool could certainly have made excellent use of his energy, and intelligence.
It was a day of firsts for Tottenham, really.
Their first opening-day win since the George Graham era, the first goal in English football for new signing Sebastien Bassong — and won’t that delight supporters of Newcastle United who would have killed for one from him last season — and the first goal of his career for Assou-Ekotto. It was worth waiting for, too.
Match facts
TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR (4-4-2): Gomes 6;Corluka 7, King 8, Bassong 8, Assou-Ekotto 8; Lennon 8, Huddlestone 7, Palacios 9, Modric, 8 (O’Hara 82min); Defoe 7 (Pavlyuchenko 90), Keane 7 (Crouch 67, 6). Booked: Lennon, Gomes, Assou-Ekotto.
LIVERPOOL (4-2-3-1): Reina 7; Johnson 7, Carragher 6, Skrtel 6 (Ayala 74, 5), Insua 6; Lucas 6, Mascherano 6; Kuyt 5 (Voronin 78), Gerrard 7, Babel 5 (Benayoun 67, 7); Torres 6. Booked: Mascherano, Skrtel, Carragher.
Man of the match: Wilson Palacios.
Referee: Phil Dowd.
After Tom Huddlestone had drilled a free-kick into the Liverpool wall, the ball fell to Assou-Ekotto, who let fly with a left-foot shot of exceptional ferocity past Jose Reina while he was still clutching at air.
Gerrard really is Liverpool’s Freddie Flintoff — their game seems to rise when he has the ball — and it was no surprise that when they equalised against the run of play in the 56th minute, it should be their captain who converted from the spot.
He absolutely leathered it, too, fired up by taunts from behind the goal concerning his recent trial, but his team-mates could not keep the scores even for long.
The next attack, in fact, brought what proved to be Tottenham’s winner.
Luka Modric took the corner, and Bassong beat Johnson and the stitched-up Carragher — 12 in a head wound at half-time, a proper job to come later, according to Benitez — to head past Reina.
There were some hairy moments before the end with a couple of low punts from Gerrard, but Tottenham were worth their three points.
Ledley King, excellent beside Bassong, is unlikely to make the trip to Hull City this week and, with Jonathan Woodgate and Michael Dawson injured, Redknapp is likely to field a makeshift back line with Vedran Corluka in the middle and Alan Hutton at right back.
Considering it took until October 26 for Tottenham to amass this number of points last season, though, Redknapp has made huge strides in less than a year.
Liverpool, meanwhile, are already three points behind Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United; with a goal difference that is inferior to Arsenal’s by six.
Still, it is far too early to worry. Isn’t it?
New boy: Spurs seem to have found the answer to their defensive frailties with the acquisition of Sebastien Bassong. Quick, powerful and composed,he also weighed in with a debut goal. The £8million Tottenham paid Newcastle is already looking like a steal.
