Dan Rimmer's Reds Blog

Post #17 - Barclays Premier League Review - Liverpool 4-0 Tottenham

The Reds rounded off a rampant March by sending Spurs packing in another fantastic performance at Anfield in the form of a 4-0 win. All season the fans, home and away, have been absolutely superb but before the game today they seemed a colourful and rather energetic voice.

The Kop looked like it did in the great Champions League nights in 2005, of which the best to compare similarities was the Chelsea semi-final at Anfield. All off the signs were there, quite literally! 'Make Us Dream', 'We Love You Liverpool We Do', and 'We Are The Famous The Famous Kopites' were just a few that the Liverpool team entered to pitch to see. The debate as to whether to start Philippe Coutinho or Raheem Sterling ended today as the pair of them made a starting eleven appearance, but keeping them both in the side meant that the change came in the form of the departing Joe Allen who dropped to the bench. 

The familiar sight of Liverpool attacking flair right from the off repeated again today as the start all fans would have dreamed of came true inside just two minutes. Glen Johnson placed a ball across the box in an attempt to search for a red shirt, but the ball was turned in by the white Spurs shirt of Younes Kaboul, 1-0 to Liverpool.

Already the fans were singing "We're gonna win the League!". Watching the game I thought that Liverpool were going to do what they did to Spurs' North London rivals Arsenal last month and absolutely blitz them within the opening minutes of the game. Coutinho almost managed to find joy with an attempted ball through to Suarez while Sterling tried the same but also failed just minutes after taking the lead. Spurs actually had more attempts at goal than Liverpool in this game but I honestly didn't noticed because of the fact that we took our chances and played much better football. Meanwhile Flanagan continued to impress as well and had a brilliant game, putting everything on the line to win the ball. After Suarez hit a free kick just over the bar, an injured Jan Vertonghen was substituted and replaced by Michael Dawson which ultimately changed the game. Just moments later Dawson failed to catch up with a pacey Luis Suarez after Kaboul had gifted the Uruguayan the ball who calmly slotted into the bottom corner to make it 2-0 after 25 minutes.

Kaboul's afternoon got worse when he was yellow carded shortly after a Skrtel superbly blocked a shot from Eriksen. Sturridge too tried to get on the act with a free kick that went just wide of the mark. 

I was very impressed with the defence as well today, because we didn't look as if we were in too much danger throughout the game and that is something we should give great credit to the back four. Agger sniffed out potential danger from Soldado in the opening minutes of the second half, while Flanagan was managing to dig himself out of sticky situations. It took Liverpool only ten minutes of play in the second half to find the net again in this encounter. Philippe Coutinho scored this one and it was a daisycutter too. The Brazilian got himself into a great position at the edge of the box and drilled it into the corner at the Kop End to make it 3-0 in the 55th minute.

The red men could have added more to their lead when a Man of the Match Raheem Sterling played a wonderful one-two with Luis Suarez and should have lobbed it over Lloris. The young English international has really impressed me this season and we have seen him flourish. He is extremely strong and extremely fast, and bullied the Spurs defenders all afternoon. We again saw Henderson working hard to put the opposite players under huge amounts of pressure, with the latest victim of the midfielder's class coming in the form of Danny Rose. It was actually also good to see Gerrard getting a wonderful reception as he left the field as part of a substitution as a lot of us continue to worry about a potential yellow card that would see the skipper get a two match suspension, though the yellow card total gets wiped on the same day that the Reds play Man City at home. Henderson got a goal for himself as he drove the ball into the box and ended up in the back of the net to make it 4-0 in the 75th minute.

The last time Liverpool were top of the tabel was when I was at Anfield for the Cardiff game at home where the fans were chanting 'Liverpool, top of the league!'. So, guess what? Liverpool are top again and two points clear of Chelsea after a dramatic Saturday afternoon that could have seen the title race swing Liverpool's way. Man City have a couple of games in hand but we are the ones with the points on the board with just six games left to play. That also means eight consecutive wins for the Reds which is definitely the form of Champions. So I am definitely believing that a first title in the Premier League era is more than possible. Roll on West Ham next Sunday!