Tottenham 3 Liverpool 6: Slot's side top of league at Christmas, Gray ...

24 days ago

The New York Times

Tottenham 3 Liverpool 6 Slots side top of league at Christmas Gray

Liverpool are top of the Premier League at Christmas after beating Tottenham 6-3. Our writers break down the key talking points

Liverpool beat Tottenham to cement their spot at the top of the Premier League for Christmas.

Luis Diaz opened the scoring at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium after a pinpoint cross from Trent Alexander-Arnold before Alexis Mac Allister doubled the lead when he nodded home 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.

Dejan Kulusevski and Dominic Solanke pulled two back for the home team, before Diaz struck again late, though the outcome was already decided.

The 6-3 win puts Liverpool four points clear of second-placed Chelsea, with a total of 39 and a game in hand going into the Boxing Day fixtures. Tottenham remain 11th.

Here our writers break down the key talking points of the game…

Liverpool outdo Spurs with slick start

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.

14 – Tottenham have conceded the opening goal in 14 different home games in the Premier League in 2024; the joint-most ever by a team within a calendar year in the competition (also Crystal Palace in 2017, Ipswich and Spurs in 1994). Rocked. pic.twitter.com/SQOIpCA6Zq

— 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 20 minute mark — including striking the bar — although failed test Fraser Forster.

Any thoughts of Liverpool failing to score while on top vanished with the opener from Diaz on 23 minutes. By the half-hour mark, Liverpool had managed 10 shots and 23 touches in the opposition area compared with Tottenham’s two shots and four touches in the box.

Spence and Gray get true test

Coming up against Salah represented the biggest test Archie Gray and Djed Spence have faced since they were both thrown into the Spurs starting XI. It was a particularly significant challenge for Spence, who was making his third start in a row after months of being restricted to cameos from the bench, and playing on the left despite being right-footed.

Salah is one of the world’s best players and was always going to sneak into threatening positions. In the 16th minute, Spence produced a superb double block to prevent him from scoring. Seconds later though, the Egypt international twisted and turned past the pair before unleashing a right-footed shot that hit the bar.

(Marc Atkins/Getty Images)

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.

It felt like they had to deal with wave after wave of attacks and the best example was the move that led to Salah’s first goal. Gray and Radu Dragusin were confronted by five Liverpool attackers and, despite the 18-year-old’s best efforts as he blocked Cody Gakpo’s cross and then stopped Szoboszlai’s shot on the line, Salah had a simple tap-in.

It was a bruising experience for Gray and Spence that they will surely learn from.

Szoboszlai uses his head

Right from his first competitive game as Liverpool head coach — away to Ipswich Town — Arne Slot has emphasised the necessity of winning duels. With Liverpool and Tottenham matched up in nearly identical 4-3-3 and 4-2-3-1 formations, it meant plenty of long passes and second balls. Szoboszlai’s positional awareness and headed passes made all 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.

1 – Mohamed Salah is the first player to reach double figures for both goals and assists before Christmas in a Premier League season in the history of the competition. Class. pic.twitter.com/Lg9GNOg2tg

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) December 22, 2024

The final of Szoboszlai’s five was from a hopeful Alexander-Arnold long ball after the full-back was played into trouble and Tottenham pressed. Szoboszlai won the aerial duel against Dragusin and chased his pass as Liverpool carved Tottenham apart, slotting past Forster from Salah’s assist.

Spurs struggle after fixture congestion

Just a few days after beating Manchester United to reach the Carabao Cup semi-finals, Spurs have been brought crashing back down to earth. It was always going to be a difficult task for Ange Postecoglou’s side to earn a positive result against the league leaders.

Slot was able to rest some of his squad during their midweek victory over Southampton, but nine of Tottenham’s initial XI have started three games in the last eight days. They were already running low on energy and coming up against this version of Liverpool proved too much.

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 make a statement after stutter

Liverpool are top of the league at Christmas. That has a nice ring to it. If you had told Slot that would be the outcome of his first few months in England he would have bitten your hand off.

Chelsea dropping points at Goodison Park in a 0-0 draw with Everton meant Liverpool were guaranteed to sit at the top of the table on December 25 — but they 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.

This was the perfect way to get back on track and re-establish a 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.

The final 20 minutes will have angered Slot, however, with his side conceding twice, allowing Tottenham to reduce the deficit. Diaz’s late goal, and Liverpool’s sixth, re-established the three-goal lead.

Joe Gomez and Szoboszlai were two of the many standout performers as Liverpool made the biggest statement of their title credentials yet — and they still have a game in hand.

What did Ange Postecoglou say?

“I think I have been really patient the last 18 months sitting up here answering the same questions over and over again. If people want me to change my approach, it’s not going to change. We are doing it for a reason: we are doing it because we think it will help us to be successful.

“If people don’t understand the circumstances we are in at the moment, the challenges we have from a squad perspective — which are as obvious as you want to make them. I get the idea that people think that I should just flip a switch and change and somehow that will miraculously make us a better team. It is what it is. I’m just going to continue, stay focused on trying to build this team to be the team we want.

“In the interim, we are going to have to accept there are going to be challenges along the way.”

What did Arne Slot say?

“For 60 minutes, we did everything we had to do,” Slot told BBC Sport. “We were comfortable and good with the ball. The main thing is we worked very, very hard. But then the same players with the same quality thought that 10 or 15 minutes of not working as hard was good enough.

“Tottenham have enough quality to score goals if you give them chances. You have to be on top of your game for the whole game, and we didn’t do that.”