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| Bale getting hit in the face is always a highlight... Image: 101greatgoals.com |
Brendan opted to start once again with Henderson and Stewart Downing, pushing Enrique up front in the hope he would add to our attack. Sterling and Suarez were regarded as the main threat for Liverpool though going into this one.
It didn't take Spurs long at all to take their lead leaving Liverpool pretty much shell shocked. Aaron Lennon was able to turn in a Gareth Bale cross after Bale broke with ease past an adjusting Stewart Downing.
Liverpool were able to respond to this but unsuccessfully, Suarez went very close but an even better chance fell to Jordan Henderson who I feel the more I watch, the more I learn he is a confidence player. Faced with an open goal he managed to miss the target, he certainly looked gutted but he should be doing far better in those situations and it's not the first time he's missed like that this season.
Failing to capitalise with their chances Liverpool had to take another blow as Spurs scored their second just after the 15 minute mark. A free kick awarded to Villas Boas' boys was debatable to say the least, Clint Dempsey went down with such ease but nevertheless all Liverpool had to do was deal with the resulting effort. Bale however was on form for this fixture and his strike left Reina dumbstruck, unable to even make an attempt to save, leaving Tottenham with a 2 goal lead.
The next moment of note for Liverpool was when Gerrard went down in the box, many feel it was a penalty but Suarez at the time still took his chance to try and put Liverpool ahead if only Walker wasn't so alert to clear the ball from danger just in time. There were two penalty shouts in the match for Liverpool but as I mentioned on Twitter, we shouldn't be in a situation where we are relying on decisions going our way to win or draw a game to be honest.
In the second half Liverpool were gifted a consolation goal after a Gerrard header back across goal was attempted to be cleared by Lennon, unfortunately for him, he smashed the ball straight into Gareth Bale's face and an own goal meant the Reds were now back in the game.
Shortly afterwards a tenacious Daniel Agger would not give up on a ball that was almost certainly going out, his bicycle kick back into the centre of the box was met by Luis Suarez but his powerful volley flew over the cross bar leaving Lloris with no worries.
It's worth noting Jose Enrique in this report because despite not finding the back of the net in the 90 minutes for Liverpool he was once again causing problems and finding himself with several chances. I do feel that playing him in this position is a positive and he definitely looks as though he has some more goals in him I just hope he starts finding them soon because as we have seen, if Suarez can't find the net nobody else appears to be able to either.
The game ended 2-1 and Liverpool had to walk away without any points at all. I must admit though I wasn't exactly expecting anything from the Lane, perhaps a draw but that was me being hopeful. We have a pretty poor record there and with our goalscoring problems still rife it was always going to be a tough task. The real problem will arise if we fail to take all three points from our game with Southampton on Saturday.