Did Diogo Jota decison actually help Tottenham?

It was another crazy day in a crazy season for Liverpool Football Club. After cruising to a 3-0 lead inside the first 15 minutes against Tottenham Hotspur with goals from the ever improving Curtis Jones, Luis Diaz and Mo Salah, the reds showed that there is still a lot of work to defensively in the summer if we are to challenge for titles again next season.

By rights the game should have been dead and buried but an error strewn back line let Spurs back in the game just before half time. Virgil Van Dijk looked to have things under control but his slip left Ivan Preisic with the time and space to pick out an unmarked Harry Kane to make it 3-1. Heung Min Son then made it 3-2 mid way through the second half before the unthinkable happened deep into injury time.

Richarlison has rightly been the butt of many people’s jokes this season having failed to score a Premier League goal since his 60 million GBP move from the Everton. However the Brazilian striker silenced the Anfield crowd when he equalised with his first of the season in the 93rd minute. But just 10 seconds later Liverpool were back in front and would seal the three points when Diogo Jota fired home much to the relief of his team mates and the millions of fans watching from around the world.

Apart from being a quality spectacle this was a match that was also stacked with controversy after both managers questioned the quality of the officials in charge. But the decision not to send off Diogo Jota for a high boot 10 minutes before he bagged Liverpool’s winner has baffled both sets of fans.

While the Tottenham faithful will point at the decision to keep the Portuguese star on the pitch as the reason for their eventual loss, I feel that referee Paul Tierny actually did them a backhanded favour. We have all seen teams struggle when facing up against ten men. There is a shift in mentality that makes them think the extra man will make things easier, while the team at a disadvantage is able to set up camp in their own half, stay organised and work hard to close down space. If Jota had seen red with just ten minutes left the Spurs players may have felt an equaliser was inevitable, while Liverpool would have been a little more focused on seeing out the game. Instead the decision not send Jota packing fired Tottenham up, they got angry and had ten minutes to channel this frustration by throwing everything they had a creaking reds defence that would eventually collapse as Richarlison equalised for the away team.

But Spurs being Spurs weren’t done yet and when Lucas Moura’s bad pass was seized upon by Jota you just knew he was going to score to give Liverpool all three points. Yes, Jurgen Klopp will know that his team were lucky today, but Spurs literally only have themselves to blame for not getting something out of this game.