League Leaders Struggling At Half Time

 Spurs, in their home kit, kicked off from left to right at Anfield.

It was a terrible start for the league leaders as Harry Kane scored from basically the kick-off on 47 seconds.

Kane was onside and Spurs went ahead as Son came infield onto his right foot and whacked 20-yard shot that took a deflection off Lovren and hit the post. It rebounded to Kane, who stooped to steer a header wide of Alisson from eight yards.

Liverpool just didn’t seem in the game at all and on 24 minutes almost a second goal for Spurs, Kane’s cushioned volley was just too far in front of Alli, who would have had an open goal, and then Eriksen mishit a volley that bobbled just wide. That said, it might have been disallowed for offside against Kane had they scored. 

Shortly afterwards on 27 minutes, Gazzaniga made a vital double save for Spurs. He stretched a long way to his left to palm away Salah’s rising drive from the edge of the area, then got to his feet quickly to block Firmino’s follow-up. He should maybe have pushed Salah’s shot behind for a corner; if it was a mistake, he redeemed it with the second save.

2 minutes later Gazzaniga made another good save, leaping to tip van Dijk’s close-range header over the bar. It came from a beautiful dipping free-kick by Alexander-Arnold on the right.

Just after Mane missed a great chance, flicking a header wide from Alexander-Arnold’s stunning pass/cross. It was a brilliant ball, lofted over the defence from a very narrow position as Liverpool started to show some of their more established form.

The half saw Liverpool have 79% of the possession but no real cutting edge and with currently 3 points between them and second-placed Man City they need to shape up for the second half.