“Spurs are a very, very good team,” said victorious manager Rafael Benitez, who joined his opposite number Martin Jol, in praising his own team’s organisation. “While they kept the ball, we created the chances. I’m just happy to take the three points.”
Both these teams conceded three FA Cup goals to lower league opposition last week. The Champions of Europe may have struggled to edge past Luton, the champions of League One, but Liverpool have now gone 12 Premiership games unbeaten, precluding the need for major surgery, so Benitez merely dropped Djibril Cisse and felt able to leave one new signing, Jan Kromkamp, on the bench and another, Daniel Agger, out of the 16 entirely.
Tottenham’s response to the fragility exposed by their unaccountably lax showing at Leicester was rather more brutal, and not merely because Edgar Davids and Ledley King returned from injury. Of the starting XI who allowed Spurs’s last hope of their first silverware since 1999 to evaporate at the Walkers stadium, Anthony Gardner, Stephen Kelly, Aaron Lennon, Michael Brown and Grzegorz Rasiak were omitted.
Despite the cull, Spurs arrived well prepared. Teemu Tainio, the Finnish terrier, attached himself to Xabi Alonso in the manner of an especially dogged limpet until he was withdrawn when Spurs were in arrears. As a result, Liverpool’s creative linchpin was nullified.
Alas for Spurs, they still struggled in defence. In the eighth minute Young-Pyo Lee’s crude hack at Steven Gerrard brought a free kick. Gerrard himself lobbed it over, Peter Crouch, who is hardly the most invisible presence, evaded supposed shadow Michael Dawson and Paul Robinson saved the diving header athletically. Spurs had been warned where the danger from an equally well-briefed Liverpool would originate.
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The home side’s gameplan involved Steve Finnan and Gerrard rampaging down their right and preying upon the shaky Lee. This meant King was dragged wide in support of Lee and Spurs were dragged out of shape, yet there was no Alonso to provide the bullets for Fernando Morientes and Crouch to fire.
After the early skirmishes, each midfield cut the other’s supply line until the 32nd minute. Then, Sami Hyypia’s luxurious crossfield ball allowed Gerrard and Finnan to combine once again, outfox Lee and cross for Morientes to loop a header onto Robinson’s crossbar. Crouch miss-kicked the rebound into Robinson’s arms and Tottenham breathed again.
If the near-miss didn’t quite galvanise Liverpool into working up a head of steam, it did cement their superiority and before the end of the technically exacting but almost thrill-free first half, Crouch and the ceaselessly toiling Kewell had caused Robinson mild alarm, but the stodgy fare was hardly a ringing endorsement for the Premiership.
Mercifully, the second period was a more rewarding affair entirely. Whatever Jol said at the break, Spurs re-emerged revitalised. They had not created a chance of note in the first half, but they should have swept ahead 30 seconds into the second. John Arne Riise’s foolish charge upfield ended in a miskick and Jermaine Jenas was unleashed down Spurs’s right. His low cross beat Jose Reina, but Robbie Keane somehow failed to tap home at the far post. “You would,” sighed Jol, “have expected him to score that one.”
Both teams upped their game. Robinson saved well again from another Crouch header following Gerrard’s corner, but the unexpected winner was a joy. Finnan collected the ball, on the right, and his deep cross initially seemed overhit, but with Paul Stalteri sleeping soundly, Kewell was left alone to beat Robinson at the goalkeeper’s near post with the cutest of volleys from the most acute of angles, for his first goal since December 2004.
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“It was,” noted Benitez, “the perfect finish. Kewell is a very important player for us.”
“Apart from the goal, Liverpool’s approach caused us no problems,” argued Jol. “We did well, we’d kept the crowd quiet, we’d proved our midfield is as good as theirs and we had the feeling that this could be our day, because we had such a strong team out. It was not to be.”
Now, Spurs abandoned all thoughts of containment. Reina distinguished himself with a heroic save after Mido — playing his final game before the African Nations Cup — chested down and volleyed Davids’s cross in an exhibition of technique every bit the equal of Kewell’s.
In contrast, Liverpool replaced Morientes with full-back Stephen Warnock and pushed the combative Riise into midfield. The switch paid unforeseen dividends when the Norwegian robbed a dawdling Lennon and found Kewell, who was unceremoniously upended by Stalteri as he homed in on goal. Off went the Canadian and on marched Liverpool.
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STAR MAN: Steve Finnan (Liverpool)
Player ratings. Liverpool: Reina 6, Finnan 7, Carragher 7, Hyypia 7, Riise 6, Gerrard 7, Sissoko 6 (Kromkamp 90min, 3), Alonso 6, Kewell 7, Morientes 5 (Warnock 83min, 5), Crouch 6 (Cisse 66min, 6)
Tottenham: Robinson 7, Stalteri 5, Dawson 6, King 6, Lee 5, Jenas 6, Tainio 7 (Defoe 67min, 4), Davids 6 (Lennon 78min, 4), Carrick 7, Keane 5, Mido 5
Scorer: Liverpool: Kewell 59
Referee: D Gallagher
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Attendance: 44,983