Following two straight Premier League losses, Mohamed Salah scored twice as Liverpool defeated Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 on Sunday night to continue their curse over the London club.
The possibility of Jurgen Klopp’s team to even contend for a spot in the Champions League for next season was beginning to come into question as they entered the game 10 points behind fourth-placed Spurs.
A tenacious Liverpool team, which had a game in hand on the fourth-placed hosts and cut the difference between the teams to seven points, stopped Antonio Conte’s Spurs from scoring a late equaliser.
A professional performance to win their first away league game of the season would have been encouraging for Klopp after battling with consistency for much of the season.
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Klopp would have been pleased by a professional performance to win their first away league game of the season and follow up Tuesday’s victory against Napoli after battling with consistency for much of the season.
Both teams came into this game with significant midweek Champions League triumphs, but Spurs’ came at a cost as Son Heung-min sustained a fracture around his left eye.
Darwin Nunez received a start from Liverpool manager Klopp in recognition of his goal against Napoli, and the Uruguayan nearly scored twice in the opening minutes, with one drive being parried away by Hugo Lloris and the second curling just wide.
The visitors had settled down immediately, so it came as no surprise when Nunez and Salah combined to give them the lead in the 11th minute.
Andrew Robertson, who had been rested on Tuesday, crossed the ball into the area for Nunez, who controlled it well and twisted away from his defender before setting up Salah, who took a touch and shot quickly into the bottom corner.
Once again, Tottenham’s tendency to lag behind cost them, but the home team did well to recover after falling down and hit the woodwork after 15 minutes.
Perisic misjudged a dangerous cross from Kane into the box, and Alisson Becker was only able to unintentionally deflect the ball onto his own post after botching his punch attempt.
Soon after, Ryan Sessegnon went down after being shoved by Trent Alexander-Arnold in a similar-looking incident to the one that resulted in no penalties being awarded by referee Andrew Madley.
A brilliant crossfield pass from Eric Dier to Sessegnon, who ducked behind the Liverpool full-back, put Alexander-Arnold in jeopardy again midway through the first half. However, Ibrahima Konate came across well to save his teammate.
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Conte’s team appeared to have the advantage, but a terrible Dier error five minutes before halftime cost them.
Dier attempted to head Alisson’s clearing back to Lloris, but made a terrible mistake, allowing Salah to run through before lobbing in for his second goal.
Despite the fact that Spurs overcame a two-goal deficit to defeat Bournemouth last weekend, Liverpool should have cut the score in half early in the second half.
Spurs first hit the wall when Dier headed directly at Alisson from a corner kick by Perisic. Then, when Sessegnon cut back for Perisic, he glanced against the crossbar from close range.
Moments later, Sessegnon missed again, but in the 53rd minute, Salah had a fantastic opportunity to end the match when he shot straight at Lloris.
Tottenham continued to have opportunities, as Kane headed Ben Davies’ free kick wide before Conte sent in the cavalry in the form of Matt Doherty and Dejan Kulusevski.
Tottenham continued to have opportunities; Kane headed Ben Davies’ free kick beyond before Conte sent in the cavalry with the introduction of Matt Doherty and Dejan Kulusevski with 22 minutes remaining.
Huge applause greeted Kulusevski’s homecoming after he missed 11 games due to a hamstring problem, and he soon made up for lost time.
Kane received a feed from Kulusevski and slammed home his 12th goal of the season with a first-time shot after only 60 seconds had passed.
With time running out in London, Clement Lenglet and Rodrigo Bentancur both missed headers from promising positions.
Conte introduced Lucas Moura, but Liverpool held on to make it back-to-back victories and move up to eighth place after Bentancur failed to connect on Kane’s flick.
