{"id":574767,"date":"2020-12-17T03:18:22","date_gmt":"2020-12-17T08:18:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=574767"},"modified":"2020-12-17T03:18:22","modified_gmt":"2020-12-17T08:18:22","slug":"liverpool-attack-tottenham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2020\/12\/17\/liverpool-attack-tottenham\/","title":{"rendered":"Liverpool Attack Punishes Tottenham Hotspur in Table-Topping Clash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A top of the table clash at Anfield saw a <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2020\/12\/16\/curtis-jones-quickly-becoming-undroppable-at-liverpool\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Liverpool<\/a> attack punish a hard-working <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2020\/12\/16\/table-toppers-tottenham-hotspur-and-liverpool-meet\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Tottenham Hotspur<\/a> to go to the top of the table and take a three-point lead over the North Londoners.<\/p>\n<h2>Attacking Liverpool Go Top of The Premier League<\/h2>\n<h3>Liverpool Take Top Spot<\/h3>\n<p>Taking the initiative in the title race was on the table at Anfield as Tottenham and Liverpool went head-to-head. Going into the game <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2020\/12\/16\/table-toppers-tottenham-hotspur-and-liverpool-meet\/\" target=\"_self\">Tottenham were unbeaten<\/a> in nine away games and Liverpool were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goal.com\/en\/news\/liverpool-break-club-record-as-incredible-anfield-run\/1kgnus51e5iwg17dx3nw51jxn0\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">unbeaten<\/a> at home in 65 games. They are now unbeaten in 66 games at Anfield and are going to take some stopping as they look to retain the title.<\/p>\n<h3>On the Front Foot<\/h3>\n<p>It was far from unexpected that Tottenham would approach this game with a defensive mindset. <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/44781702\/Ben-Davies\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ben Davies<\/a> came in for the more attacking <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/3353737a\/Sergio-Reguilon\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sergio Reguilon<\/a> and it was Liverpool who started on the front foot. The first 45 minutes saw wave after wave of Liverpool attacks with <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/e342ad68\/Mohamed-Salah\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mohamed Salah<\/a> guilty of shooting straight at <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/8f62b6ee\/Hugo-Lloris\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Hugo Lloris<\/a> after excellent work from <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/2e4f5f03\/Andrew-Robertson\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Andrew Robertson <\/a>on the left. The attacking finally paid off in the 26th minute when Salah got his shot away and, somewhat fortuitously, the ball looped up off <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/f7d50789\/Toby-Alderweireld\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Toby Alderweireld<\/a> and over Lloris who could do nothing to stop the goal and Liverpool taking the lead.<\/p>\n<h3>Counter-Attacking Tottenham<\/h3>\n<p>A feature of Tottenham\u2019s play under Jose Mourinho this season has been their devastating counter-attacking play. As much as Liverpool had dominated the first half an hour, it was another such attack that levelled the score. The ball fell to <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/d7553721\/Giovani-Lo-Celso\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Giovani Lo Celso<\/a> who hit a sublime pass with the outside of his left foot to <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/92e7e919\/Son-Heung-min\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Son Heung-min<\/a> who made it 1-1. It was a goal that came out of nowhere but it was typical of Spurs this season.<\/p>\n<h3>Second Half Chances for Spurs<\/h3>\n<p>At the start of the second half, it was a different Tottenham that emerged with more attacking intent. <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/a29b1131\/Steven-Bergwijn\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Steven Bergwijn <\/a>showed strength but struck wide and then was unlucky to hit the post and <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/21a66f6a\/Harry-Kane\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Harry Kane<\/a> nearly caught <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/7a2e46a8\/Alisson\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Alisson Becker<\/a> out with a left-footed lob from distance. Tottenham then shrunk back into their defensive shells and allowed Liverpool to have the ball at will.<\/p>\n<h3>Liverpool Attack Strike Late to go Top<\/h3>\n<p>A Robertson corner was powered home by the head of <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/4c370d81\/Roberto-Firmino\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Roberto Firmino<\/a> in the 90th minute which consequently took Liverpool to the top of the table. Tottenham worked hard and had chances to win the game in the second half but ultimately it was a Liverpool attack who have taken the initiative in the Premier League title race.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"_FA2Az1JSwpJFQmmETetyA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.co.uk\/detail\/1291664289\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'_FA2Az1JSwpJFQmmETetyA',sig:'YE5TQYN5w6JVCBpspsVuj0O60LQOVF79hKXPm-pwOlg=',w:'594px',h:'373px',items:'1291664289',caption: true ,tld:'co.uk',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A top of the table clash at Anfield saw a Liverpool attack punish a hard-working Tottenham Hotspur to go to the top of the table and take a three-point lead over the North Londoners. Attacking Liverpool Go Top of The Premier League Liverpool Take Top Spot Taking the initiative in the title race was on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2488,"featured_media":574809,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2,1828,16,24],"tags":[1403,264,1152,2797,352,1914,136],"class_list":["post-574767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-premier-league","category-featured","category-fixtures","category-liverpool","category-tottenham","tag-andrew-robertson","tag-harry-kane","tag-mohamed-salah","tag-premier-league-title-race","tag-roberto-firmino","tag-son-heung-min","tag-world-football"],"modified_by":"Dale Ventham, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2488"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=574767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/574809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}