Charles Jackson
Liverpool kept their slim Premier League title chances alive – almost – on Sunday with a 4-2 victory over Tottenham Hotspur at Anfield that left the Londoners seven points behind Aston Villa in last League qualifying place. of the UEFA Champions. Jurgen Klopp’s men took a comfortable 4-0 lead with goals from Mohamed Salah, Andy Robertson, Cody Gakpo and Harvey Elliott, before Ange Postecoglou’s side recovered with late goals from Richarlison and Son Heung-min, making it A decidedly nervous final 10 minutes.
Despite the Reds’ worrying late wobble, they remain five points behind Arsenal at the top of the EPL with just six points to play for, although Manchester City can extinguish those hopes by winning their game against Spurs. Tottenham, however, now need to win the remaining three games and hope that Villa do not score points in the last two games, with the next match being the visit of none other than Liverpool at Villa Park, in the penultimate game of the campaign.
This after Villa lost 1-0 away at Brighton and Hove Albion earlier on Sunday and lost another player to injury in Morgan Rogers, with the injured Unai Emery needing a miracle to reverse the deficit to 4-2 first leg against Olympiacos in UEFA. Europa Conference League Semifinals. Despite another round of entertaining, goal-filled games, Liverpool and Spurs’ positions remain unchanged and both essentially need to win their remaining games to have any chance – no matter how remote – of finishing above their current position.
Even six points for Klopp’s Reds will almost certainly not be enough to move up to second place, while nine points is a big demand for Postecoglou’s Tottenham in their final three games, which include Pep Guardiola’s City, who could seal the title by surpass Arsenal. Spurs have lost four games in a row and conceded 13 goals in that time, with one win in six EPL matches a return not worthy of a top four finish by usual standards and yet another victory for Villa against Liverpool or Crystal Palace would deny this possibility.
For Klopp and Liverpool, Villa and Wolverhampton Wanderers will be Klopp’s final goodbye, in what will feel like an extremely underwhelming end to what has generally been a wonderful period for the club under the German’s leadership. Whether they finish in anything above third place or not, at least the EFL Cup victory ensured the final silver medal, even if it wasn’t quite the trophy win that seemed possible until just a few weeks ago.
The bottom line for both Liverpool and Tottenham in all of this is that they are both about to pay for their lack of consistency, as they let themselves down in key moments that could very well end up defining their years. A run of two wins in seven for the Reds ended their Premier League and UEFA Europa League hopes, while Spurs somehow failed to build on a 4-0 thrashing of Villa away from home, with just two wins in five defeats and one draw since then.
Postecoglou is already speaking publicly about the need to make widespread changes to this Spurs squad despite being more active than most last January and whether it was an attempt to motivate his troops or not isn’t exactly a boost to the team’s performance. current harvest. . Barring the most unexpected scenarios right now, there shouldn’t be any major changes in the EPL top five, with Tottenham being caught by Newcastle United just as likely as Spurs overtaking Villa at the last second.
