Immediate reaction to the chaos at Tottenham Stadium
Take a breath everyone. That was a whirlwind of a Premier League match. Chaos is the nice way to put things as a 9-man Liverpool succumbed to a 96th minute own goal and their first defeat since April.
11 yellow cards were shown in this one as well as a straight red. Two of the yellows led to an early dismissal for Diogo Jota.
If Matip can deflect the pinged cross in any other direction we are talking about the pride and heart shown by the Reds to salvage a point against all the odds.
Unfortunately, the football gods in all their wisdom deemed it time for Tottenham to finally get one over on us. You could feel and visibly see the life being knocked out of the Liverpool players all over the pitch as the stadium burst into rapture.
Chaos was prevalent throughout as Luis Diaz had a very clear goal called back for an egregious phantom offside call.
If that call stands this match could be very different as well. The fact that Liverpool were on the precipice of still stealing a point from all this is a testament to their character and the impressive defensive work that was done.
There are so many talking points from this match that it will take a few days and a lot more word space to digest it all. However, for this immediate reaction we are going to try and take a positive spin on things.
The refereeing might have been some of the worst we have seen and yet the Reds were not playing park the bus when they got disadvantaged early on.
It was a on a razors edge throughout as both sides looked like they could eventually bag a winner.
I honestly didn’t have an own goal on my bingo card that would decide it one way or the other. However, Alisson stood on his head today and he made some absolutely top notch saves to keep things close.
Once again Jurgen Klopp will be beyond thankful he has the Brazilian between the sticks. This defeat, while crushing right now, is not destructive to the season as a whole.
Manchester City were also felled by Wolves so points were not lost at the top. The fact that Spurs celebrated the victory as if they had just won silverware is a sign of the different standards at these clubs.
Liverpool will pick themselves up and dust off and go again. It’s just in the nature of this club. Is this a statement win for Tottenham? I don’t think so as a tremendous amount of luck and chaos had to occur for them to snatch a win at the death.
The Reds will be fine. If they can just learn that it’s alright to finish matches with eleven men we will be okay. Rough afternoon, but there is still plenty of football to play.