Liverpool (Home) 20.12.2025

Spurs were punished for a couple of moments of injudicious play -with Xavi catching van Dijk not with any force or intention and Romero kicking out at Konate right in front of the ref.  We were then punished by conceding a goal that would have been penalised for a push anywhere else on the field and at the final whistle that was the decide

When the football got underway, a fifth minute cross from Mo Kudus on the right wing caused chaos in the box, as Archie Gray went for a header but missed it, the ball hit a defender and dropped for Randal Kolo Muani, who fired in a shot from 10 yards out, but it hit a red shirted defender.  When Liverpool got into the Spurs box for the first time with eight minutes gone, Ekitike knocked Cristian Romero off balance fairly, but then dragged the Spurs captain to the floor with the referee adjudging that they were both holding.  Romero fiery reaction hinted that he was in full agreement with the official’s decision.  Not that he agreed either when Kudus was penalised for jumping with MacAllister out on our right wing 35 yards out.  When the free-kick came in, van Dijk won a header, but put it straight into Vicario’s chest, but when it was cleared another soft free-kick was given for a supposed foul on Szoboszlai.  It came in low and was easily cleared, leading to a long period of possession ending in a Pedro Porro cross tha Kolo Muani headed wide at the near post. 

In the 20th minute, Djed Spence got onto the end of a smart pass by Lucas Bergvall and bursting into the box alongside Bradley, the Liverpool defender slipped over and the referee gave a free-kick to the Reds when we were in a promising position.  He even had the temerity to smile about it afterwards.  MacAllister shoved Simons over off the ball as Spurs looked to launch an attack, which the ref saw as a coming together in his eyes.  Djed’s neat drag-back freed Archie into space in midfield and after he had played his pass Szoboszlai took him out late, but play went on with Kudus having a shot blocked by Konate’s ample backside and then the ball was worked out to Porro and his lobbed ball into the box was headed back across by Spence at the far post.  Unfortunately, Kolo Muani failed to get enough power behind his Subsequent header to trouble Alisson.

On the half hour, Xavi was pressing hard and high up the pitch and caught van Dijk on the back of his calf.  The referee pulled out a yellow card, which seemed fair until VAR Stuart Attwell brought the ref over to the monitor and you knew it would end up with Simons walking.  Slowed down it always looked worse and after three minutes, it was deemed serious foul play, so it would mean a three match ban.  van Dijk was then the villain of the piece with boos raining down from the crowd with every touch.

There are some challenges that Xavi flies into that you could see ending up in a red card as if he catches the player, it would look bad.  Liverpool had looked pretty bang average up until this pint, but the ref and VAR’s decision had given them a man advantage in a harsh manner.  In fact, aside from a couple of set-pieces, Spurs had controlled the game very well.  The crowd was riled by the stream of decisions against Spurs with this not the last in the game and they weren’t the only ones with Romero ranting at the referee for handing out free-kicks to Liverpool like gifts at Christmas.

With the added space, Wirtz was played into the box and his low shot was pushed well away on the dive by Vicario, then Spurs sprang forward with Porro’s long ball over the defence chased by Randal, but Alisson just beat him to it in the box, but could not hold it as the ball spilled towards the edge of the box and Kudus was following in and the goalkeeper recovered to win the ball with his feet.  When Vicario was called upon, he made a great punch to clear a ball into the box and it set Tottenham away, with Kudus playing a fantastic diagonal ball to the right picking out Porro in space.  His drilled cross missed out Kolo Muani at the near post and went under Djed’s foot at the far stick. 

When Bergvall was shielding the ball on the edge of the Spurs box, he was pushed down from behind by Bradley, but the ref gave nothing (not surprising as it was in keeping with his performance to this point), but Romero was enraged by the decision and was still berating the official when they took the corner quickly, but Arhie Gray was alert and cleared the ball with Cristian picking it up outside the penalty area when Liverpool tried to play it back in.  His first time pass up the right found Lucas in acres of space and he looked to play an early pass across the pitch for Randal, but it was a difficult one to complete anyway and Bradley blocked it in front of the Swede.  Right on 45 minutes, Djed Spence made a 60 yard run and was blocked off in the box by Bradley and Szoboszlai but VAR failed to make the decision of a penalty, but it left Bradley prone on the grass as he injured himself making the challenge.

After the break, Isak replaced Bradley and as an attacking change, the use of the extra man was looking to force the game as they hadn’t been doing that previously in the game. An early long pass into the right side of the box produced a strong shoulder by Spence onto Ekitike to diffuse any threat as Spurs defended solidly against the eleven men.  When Tottenham looked to move up the left wing, Lucas played a ball for Spence to run onto and Szoboslai baulked Djed’s run but the referee waved play on.  When Bentancur played the ball away he caught Isak on the thigh and play was stopped with MacAllister and Konate getting involved in pushing Spurs players as there was a gathering over the prone body of the Swedish striker.  

In the 56th minute, Romero looked to play a forward ball but it only hit MacAllister in the centre-circle, with it bouncing forward to Isak.  It came to Ekitike on the right, he switched it square left to Wirtz and with Isak slipped in with a ball into the box, the Swede swept the ball past Vicario to the keeper’s left.  Micky’s attempt to slide int o block must have caught Isak, who needed a whole load of treatment before he himself was replaced by Frimpong.  It was probably only a matter of time until Liverpool scored, even though they weren’t playing that well, having one man over is usually going to pay off.

Much like the Champions League final of 2019, Liverpool were happy to keep possession, without making too many clear-cut chances.  In fact, it was Tottenham who came closes to scoring the next goal when Kolo Muani made a run from 40 yards out from a central position into the right hand corner of the box in the 64th minute and his shot deflected off Kerkez over Alisson and towards the far post.  Substitute Brennan Johnson was underneath it but the ball had looped up onto the bar and dropped behind him.

Kerkez dragged Johnson over and the ref gave nothing, as Brennan was thrown off balanced and he probably thought that the Welshman was pulling the defender’s shirt too, but as play went on, the visitors found Frimpong on the right, his cross took a flick off Spence and Ekitike headed firmly into Vic’s top left corner, looking to have two hands in Romero’s back.  Furious as nothing was given, Cristian was booked for his protests.  Slow-motion replays clearly show two hands on Romero’s back and anywhere else, it is a free-kick.  On the bench, Andreas Georgson got a booking as the protests continue and Attwell watching on TV decided that there wasn’t enough there to have an on-pitch review.  If that wasn’t enough, Ekitike’s pulled down shorts celebration is surely ungentlemanly conduct at the very least and if you get booked for taking your shirt off, this is more offensive.

Thomas Frank brought on Wilson Odobert and Joao Palhinha for Lucas Bergvall and Archie Gray, with the game almost beyond Spurs and Richarlison was introduced in the 80th minute.  A Porro free-kick was headed up into the air in the box by Kerkez and t resulted in a corner, which brought the usual pushing and shoving.  That continued when the ball came back in, with Micky being shoved to the ground off the ball, Richarlison being pushed to the ground from behind by MacAllister, Johnson’s shot from the loose ball hitting a defender, Palhinha pulling a shot across the six-yard box that Romero got a touch to and Richi eventually putting the ball in the net with his right foot from outside the six yard box in the keeper’s right hand bottom corner.  There could well have been two penalties in that for Spurs, but VAR was only intent on trying to rule the goal out for offside, with Johnson possibly beyond the last man, but nowhere near the goalkeeper to distract him.  If it was that visible from the stands, why did it take VAR three minutes to come to the same conclusion ?  While I think VAR is a good idea, this is killing the game.

Micky was booked for slipping into MacAllister, who looked so badly injured, it looked for all the world that he would have to be replaced before he got up as sprightly as at the start of the game, but the free-kick came to nothing and Brennan slipped a ball through for Richarlison to run onto and he did well to hold off three defenders  and get a shot off that was blocked by Konate.  Szoboslai, who had been booked in the aftermath of the goal, then went down when challenged by Palhinha for nothing more than taking a ball in the balls.  The referee played on with the Hungarian on the floor (quite rightly) as Wilson crossed with Jones blocking the cross for a corner, with Tottenham contesting that it was with his hand, but it was his head.  MacAllister had both arms around van de Ven when the ball came it, but it didn’t beat the first man.  

When a throw went to Richarlison, Frimpong went down claiming an elbow and he did have blood coming from his mouth but it was him colliding with Richi’s back that caused it.  He ranted at the ref, went down, was pulled up by his team-mates as he would have to leave the field if he received treatment and then received treatment, so Slot replaced him with Chiesa, so that they still had 11 men on the pitch as they wobbled.  I think it is the first time that I have seen a sub come on for a sub who has come on for a substitute !  While all that was going on, Nine added minutes was displayed on the fourth official’s board.

Romero had been thrown forward and Bentancur covered his position, making a fine interception as Ekitike looked to break through.  Vicario played the ball long through the middle and Konate came through the back of Romero with two arms clattering him to the ground.  Romero reacted with a flick of his boot and with both players on yellow cards, it was only the Spurs captain who got a second.  van Dijk grabbed Romero to stop him getting at the ref, which he has no right to do and again, he tries to dictate what happens on the pitch without the ball.  There was still six minutes left and Porro beat the wall with his free-kick although the keeper was behind it to gather it in low to the ground. 

A Bentancur cross to the far post from the left eventually dropped for Pedro to drive into the box and drill a low effort that took a flick off Kerkez, but only into the keeper’s arms.  When Wirtz pulled up with a hamstring problem, Liverpool made a double sub with Ekitike going off with his injured team-mate.  The ref made the striker go off on the nearest side-line in front of the East Stand, but then allowed Wirtz to limp slowly off to the tunnel side.

Play restarted with Spurs in possession and Wilson hit a pacy cross that Alisson unconvincingly pushed out, just behind Johnson, who would have been well-placed to head it if it had reached him.

At the final whistle, Richarlison was booked for dissent and players were just disbelieving of what had transpired in the previous 107 minutes.  Nobody (including the referee) knew why there was a long VAR for the Spurs goal.  None of the players knew who the second red card was for, with many believing it was for Konate (who interestingly had fouled Romero with a push in the back, but Ekitike’s push for the goal wasn’t penalised).  It was clear that the referee had made things difficult for himself and lost control of the match allowing time-wasting and play-acting to dictate the pace of the game.

Ekitike said that it wasn’t football out there.  Well, he was right.  What Liverpool play isn’t football, but what Wenger defined as anti-football.  It has many names.  Dark Arts.  Shit-housery.  Cheating.  But obviously, they are resorting to this as it is in their DNA and shockingly, officials let them get away with it.  Players going down softly and winning undeserved free-kicks.  I lost count of the number of times their players went down holding their face when Spurs players got away from them.  And then play going on for a fair amount of time before the referee stopped it for a “head injury”.  If it was that serious, shouldn’t the game have been stopped straight away.

Some of our problem is that we don’t play the same way as Liverpool and other sides.  We don’t go down easy to win free-kicks and referees allow teams to get away with them.  The constant berating of the referee by van Dijk influenced him into making decisions in their favour, we don’t surround the ref at every opportunity .

Coming out of the ground, I heard someone say that van Dijk ran the game.  Well, he did, but not in the way that he meant, as I didn’t think he was particularly that good, age having caught up with him, but he had a major say in how the game played out, mostly in the referee’s ear.

Why can’t we get an answer to the fact that Mohammed Kudus jumps to challenge for the ball early in the match, with MacAllister going to ground and getting a free-kick, but when Ekitike pushed Romero, two hands in his back, to score the second goal, nothing is given.  He set his stall out early by giving Liverpool cheap free-kicks, but didn’t apply the same ruling fairly to both sides.  It is the lack of consistency in decision making that makes Brooks overtake Barrott as one of the worst of the current crop of referees and it is what makes players and fans the most frustrated.  But fortunately for him, he is bailed out by his mates in the VAR offices at Stockwell Park.  After the game, there were online threads claiming conspiracy and corruption.  I don’t think that’s true, but it is sheer incompetence that is making the game a farce in the Premier League.  Almost every club will have been the victim of rough decisions, so it is not just Tottenham, but it is endemic across the league.  With all the money circulating in the game, the professional referees are looking more amateurish at every turn.  Linesmen who are there only to take instruction from referees and referees who have nobody to answer to for shoddy performances that are only reviewed by their peers, who have made those mistakes before and don’t want to own up to them.

It is a shame that Spurs only really started playing when reduced to ten men.  It showed what they might have achieved if they had gone at Liverpool sooner, with their creaking defence nervous under pressure.  It didn’t look like Kudus was fully fit (whether that was coming into the game or picking up a knock during the match) and therefore, his effectiveness was limited. 

In adversity, it was a spirited performance and one that might have reaped more benefit had we been able to test Liverpool with eleven players.  It is no wonder that they always get something off us with the referees believing that they are often blameless.  But the crowd got behind Tottenham and that helped when one and then two men down to cause a full Liverpool team to shake with chances created that, with a little bit of luck, might have got us an equaliser.

As it is we go to Selhurst Park on 27th December with two players suspended and another defeat under our belts.

• Pedro Porro and Rodrigo Bentancur both made their 100th Premier League appearance for the club.
• This was the fourth time Spurs have had two players sent off in a Premier League match.
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