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LIVERPOOL. — Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp believes Tottenham Hotspur will be in the battle for the English Premier League football title right until the end, despite their 2-1 defeat to his side at Anfield on Wednesday night.
Roberto Firmino grabbed the winner in the 90th minute after Spurs looked set for a point having missed two great chances to take the lead after the break.
“They will be top of the table until the end of the season because they are really good. But to play against them is a proper challenge and to play like us, is pretty special,” said the German.
Klopp’s counterpart Jose Mourinho said his team had deserved not only a point, but victory from the game but the German, not surprisingly disagreed.
“It was a top game, (we) deserved the three points against a top side, organisation-wise so difficult to play against them with the counter-attacking threat they have. So, I liked the game a lot,” he said.
“Of course Tottenham had chances, I know that they scored a goal and an unbelievably tight offside decision — we are really not lucky with these moments in the moment. They had other chances.
“But around these moments we were completely in charge of the game, which is important, stay concentrated, protected our attacks sensationally well, counter-press was good, passing was good,” he added.
Mourinho brushed off talk of his team being title contenders but said they had to learn how to finish off their opponents in big games.
“I think the first thing that makes title contenders is to go to every match to win it, with that ambition.
“I promise you that the ambition is there. If in any match you see us not trying to win it, it’s not because we won’t want to… it’s because the opponent pushes us to different situations.
“You have to kill matches of this dimension. You have just to kill it. The game was there. We were in the face of the keeper two or three times and we just have to kill it.
“Steven Bergwijn has two face to face with the keeper, we have the corner of Harry (Kane) with the free header, we had other counter-attacking situations that we didn’t finish.
“We had it, we knew how to hurt and we should do much more than we did,” he said.
Mourinho was also annoyed by the touchline behaviour of Liverpool counterpart Klopp in Tottenham’s defeat and suggested he would have been punished for similar actions.
The Reds boss was exuberant during the fiercely fought contest decided by Roberto Firmino’s 90th-minute winner. “If I behaved the same, I’ve no chance to stay there,” Mourinho told Amazon Prime. “I’m out one minute after.”
On the suggestion Klopp was animated, he said: “Come on, that’s animated?”
Mourinho also told BBC Radio 5 Live: “The referees let him behave the way he does. It’s not my problem. I feel sad for it because I cannot do it, but it’s just the way it is.”
The Portuguese boss spoke to the German after the final whistle. When asked what words were exchanged, Mourinho responded: “I told him (Klopp) the best team lost and he disagreed, but that’s his opinion.”
Klopp, reacting to Mourinho’s comments, told BBC Radio 5 Live: “It was not heated at all. He wasn’t happy because he told me the better team lost – and I thought he was joking. But he wasn’t. So that’s it.”
He added that Mourinho did not bring up the topic of his touchline behaviour.
Mohamed Salah gave the home side the lead in front of 2 000 fans at Anfield and Son Heung-min equalised in the first half, before Firmino’s late winner.
Spurs’ Steven Bergwijn had two good chances to score with only keeper Alisson to beat, and Harry Kane saw his header on goal bounce over the bar.
“A point would have been quite a fair result, but we played to win and had the biggest chances to win it,” added Mourinho.
“The game was always under control. I feel it was a very undeserved result, but that’s football. At half-time we move a little bit the pieces, but overall the game was always under control and I am very pleased with the performance.”
He added that Liverpool didn’t look a team that were “(league) champions, European champions, world champions”. At the Emirates Stadium, defeat would have seen Arsenal lose five consecutive home league games for the first time in the club’s history as the pressure mounts on manager Mikel Arteta.
The Gunners could not have got off to a worse start as Theo Walcott opened the scoring on his return to the Emirates with a fine chipped finish over Bernd Leno from Che Adams’ pass.
Third-placed Southampton failed to build on their lead and were made to pay soon after the break as Arsenal scored just a third goal in their last nine league games and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s first from open play since the first day of the season.
Bukayo Saka’s burst opened up the Saints defence and when Eddie Nketiah freed Aubameyang inside the area, the Arsenal captain curling an excellent finish into the far corner.
Arsenal’s joy was short-lived as they again found themselves a man down as Gabriel picked up two quick bookings.
“It’s very difficult to compete in this league when you play for so long with 10 men,” Arteta said.
“It makes it more complicated, but the boys stood up to it, they showed their character and resilience and they never gave up.”
Fifth-placed Everton won 2-0 at fourth-placed Leicester.
Richarlison opened the scoring thanks to an error from Kasper Schmeichel as the Leicester captain got a hand to the Brazilian’s effort from outside the box but could not keep it out. Carlo Ancelotti’s men secured the points when Mason Holgate hammered home the rebound from point-blank range after Schmeichel nearly made amends with a brilliant stop from Dominic Calvert-Lewin.
Leeds won a seven-goal thriller against Newcastle 5-2 to move level on points with the Magpies, eight points clear of the relegation zone.
Fulham moved out of the relegation zone after a 0-0 draw with Brighton at Craven Cottage.
West Ham’s Sebastien Haller equalised with a superb overhead kick in a 1-1 draw against Crystal Palace, whose goalscorer Christian Benteke was sent off in the second half. — AFP.
Online Reporter