Tottenham Aggrieved to Leave Liverpool With No Points This Season

Tottenham will be relieved that they don’t have to return to play in the city of Liverpool this season. “It’s not the leaving of Liverpool that grieves me” go the words of the song but Tottenham must have felt considerable grief on their return trip to London as they reflected on the opportunities they had squandered to take maximum points from both games in Liverpool this season and particularly aggrieved that in the end they gained no points.

Battling performance from Scott Parker at Anfield but it wasn’t enough. [Photo: Jav The_DoC_66]It must be something they put in the water in Liverpool that affects Tottenham players when they visit the city, causing them to make uncharacteristic mistakes. In early December, Spurs suffered the disappointment of conceding two goals in added time to lose to Everton at Goodison Park. Yesterday, across Stanley Park, two defensive blunders handed Liverpool two goals to snatch victory and end an undefeated Premier League run which stretched back to immediately after the disappointment of the defeat at Goodison. The Spurs defence has been reasonably sound in recent weeks but from a position of strength they made two basic errors which Liverpool seized upon and made Spurs pay dearly for their lapses.

Both matches in Liverpool this season followed a similar pattern which ultimately ended in Tottenham losing.

At Goodison Park

Tottenham went ahead in this game and were in reasonable control. They had the opportunity to increase their lead with around fifteen minutes to play when Gylfi Sigurdsson’s shot hit the bar. Spurs continued to be in the ascendancy, with their goal advantage, going into three minutes of added time. A misunderstanding between Steven Caulker and Hugo Lloris resulted in an Everton equaliser. Spurs fans were ruing the dropping of two points when Everton struck again to claim an unexpected victory.

In the weeks following that defeat, Spurs showed character and resolve to build up a run of 12 Premier League games undefeated.

At Anfield

Spurs recovered from an early setback, conceding a goal after 20 minutes, to be level at half-time and go ahead within eight minutes of the restart. Jan Vertonghen scored twice and in the next period of play Spurs had opportunities to increase their advantage. Most significantly, when Sigurdsson’s shot was deflected onto the post following a deep run and cross by Gareth Bale. Tottenham remained in control until Kyle Walker for some inexplicable reason attempted a back pass to the goalkeeper from a position out wide on the touch line, near the halfway line. The pass was misdirected and although Lloris came charging out and got to the ball he didn’t make a proper connection, allowing Downing to take the ball into the area and score. The goal turned the game around, filling the Liverpool players with a belief that had previously been lacking.

Sixteen minutes later, from a free-kick, Lloris punched the ball clear but Jermain Defoe who was just outside the Spurs penalty area, in trying to control the ball, managed only in playing it back into the area. The ball fell kindly for Suarez who went past Benoit Assou-Ekotto and went down, making the most of any contact, to win a penalty. Gerrard dispatched the penalty to secure Liverpool’s win.

From a Tottenham perspective, the feeling was very similar to the loss at Goodison, disappointment to drop all three points when a win was clearly within reach.

Reactions

The defeat and the mistakes by individual players have brought the expected negative reaction from a section of the Spurs fans. Those comments, I don’t intend to repeat.

The defeat was disappointing, especially from a position of strength and control. Tottenham have shown considerable resilience in recent weeks as they moved up into 3rd place in the league but let’s be honest, at some point they were going to suffer a loss. Tottenham now have to look to ensuring qualification for the Europa League quarter-finals to restore Spurs’ feel-good factor and then take all three points against Fulham next weekend ahead of the international break. It won’t be easy but no-one said that it would be.

Former Tottenham player, Graham Roberts, in a number of tweets after the match, looks positively to the coming games.

Other fans also tried to set aside their disappointment at the defeat and look positively to the future.

Top teams bounce back immediately following such disappointments and Tottenham have put themselves into a position where they have every right to be regarded as a ‘top’ team so Spurs must ensure they recover from this set-back to put their pursuit of a Champions League finish back on track. The best way for Tottenham to extract some revenge from their disappointments in the city of Liverpool this season is to make sure that Everton suffer when they visit White Hart Lane in early April.