Tottenham 4-0 Liverpool: Modric, Defoe & Adebayor on target as Adam & Skrtel red cards sum up dreadful day for Dalglish
Four goals from Spurs illustrates the sheer control Harry Redknapp's men had as Kenny Dalglish could do little as his side imploded in a horrific display from the Merseyside outfit
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Tottenham erased any memories of the drubbing to Manchester City as home debutants Adebayor and Scott Parker started against a Reds side who never looked like winning.
The home side had set themselves up to get at Liverpool right from the first whistle. Adebayor could have banished any memories of his Arsenal days when his effort after four minutes spilled wide of the Liverpool goal. The move was instigated by the Togolese man and involved Niko Kranjcar, but the final touch was wayward.
The pressure continued with Gareth Bale ghosting down the left wing before finding Defoe, whose clever control allowed Modric to steam in and smash the ball into the far corner of Pepe Reina’s net. The finish was emphatic and was just reward for the positivity shown by Tottenham right from the off.
Liverpool showed no response to going behind and the Croat was causing mayhem again as he hit a low shot across the goal, forcing Reina to dive low to his left to keep the scoreline the same.
Kenny Dalglish was growing more and more restless on the sidelines as shambolic defensive positioning was the catalyst for sustained Tottenham threats.
A surprise break in the one-way nature of the game came when Kyle Walker’s error allowed Andy Carroll to play through to strike partner Luis Suarez, whose cool finish seemingly gave Liverpool parity, only for referee Mike Jones to call it back for offside against the Uruguayan. Television replays were clear in showing the right decision was made.
The problems continued to mount up for the visitors as Daniel Agger was brought off with a bad injury and replaced by new recruit Sebastian Coates, but worse was to come as Charlie Adam, who was already on a yellow, went in high for a 50/50 ball with Parker and only made contact with the player's thigh. The Scot knew his fate immediately and the second yellow card was swiftly shown. Any gameplan Dalglish had was discarded with a first-choice defender on the physio’s table and his playmaker in the showers.
Liverpool could have been plunged deeper into the mire when another great run from Adebayor was halted by Coates on the edge of the area. A yellow card was shown once more but it could have been red, with only the presence of Jose Enrique preventing that outcome.
Everything seemed to be going wrong for Liverpool as they limped towards half-time with another booking, this time for Suarez for sarcastically applauding when a decision went the Reds’ way, but the deficit, despite the dominance of Tottenham, was still only a single goal.
After the break it was more of the same. Tottenham had all the ball and were in total control of the game, and this advantage was reinforced when yet another yellow card was enough to see Martin Skrtel dismissed. Skrtel had been chasing Bale all afternoon and frustration took over as he clearly fouled the Welsh winger.
With Liverpool now down to nine men the space available to the home side was huge. Each Liverpool man now had vast expanses of greenery to cover and this mammoth task was exploited by second-half substitute Rafael van der Vaart as his probing forward pass to Defoe allowed the England man to run almost unimpeded on goal. The intervention of Enrique could do nothing as Defoe lost his man and slotted home to kill off any chance Liverpool had of coming back into the match.
Adebayor then endeared himself to White Hart Lane a little more when a mistake from Reina allowed the former Manchester City striker to make it 3-0.
From there, Tottenham were happy to knock the ball around knowing that the nine red shirts could do little about it and the three points were safely won. But things got worse for Liverpool in the final minute when Adebayor, after Craig Bellamy had lost possession, made it 4-0 on the final whistle to punctuate a horrible afternoon for Dalglish's side
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