Spurs implode but Liverpool threaten catastrophe to leave everyone depressed and happy | OneFootball

As far as visual metaphors go, Hugo Ekitike pulling his shorts down to celebrate having symbolically done the same to Cristian Romero and, by extension, Spurs and Thomas Frank, was a powerful one.

Gary Neville “absolutely loved that goal”, which marked Ekitike’s fifth in three Premier League games and 11th of an increasingly impressive debut season in England.

It is the sort of form that might be leaned on even more intensely in the coming weeks and months, considering what transpired after a regrettable first half.

In seemingly randomly mounting Ekitike, squaring up to Dominik Szoboszlai and making Jeremie Frimpong bleed his own blood after his late strike which sparked rumours of a Spurs comeback and speculation surrounding yet another Liverpool collapse, Richarlison offered up some strong imagery of his own.

A typically uneventful 20-minute cameo from the Brazilian was ultimately slightly undermined by the unrelenting and overwhelming absurdity of Spurs, who ended the game in the ascendancy and probably should have equalised with nine men.

Only these two teams could produce a match in which either manager could be sacked in the aftermath to a reaction of nods and shrugs.

For once, Arne Slot was rescued rather than ratted out by a round of summer investment which has been widely ridiculed and derided all season.

Florian Wirtz finally supplied the silver bullet for Alexander Isak as planned months ago, even if the Swede injured himself in the process. Ekitike rode Romero to head home a deflected Jeremie Frimpong cross. And all seemed right for the Reds again.

A 2-0 win. A third clean sheet in as many games. A season stabilised, jumping into a likely Champions League qualification place off a six-match unbeaten run. Crisis hardly averted, but certainly survived.

The curious part is that none of those points were altered by Richarlison’s consolation. But the way a professional victory soon descended into an amateurish stumble over the line was worrying.

Maybe that is simply a by-product of the levels of ridiculousness generated when these two teams meet. To produce multiple recent games in which the side reduced to nine men could have entirely feasibly won and still obviously heroically yet farcically lost is daftness of the highest order.

Ekitike’s goal was Liverpool’s penultimate effort, with Spurs’ collective tail gradually rising to the point they had the last eight shots of the game despite incurring a second self-destructive red card of the match in that period.

Perhaps Xavi Simons and Romero would have joined the legion of Spurs subordinates to snub Frank in insipid defeat had they remained on the pitch long enough. But the former was understandably compelled to tread on Virgil van Dijk’s calf for precisely no reason and the latter managed to turn being fouled near the halfway line into a second yellow card for dissent like any worthwhile captain would.

It can be easy to feel sympathy for Frank, provided one doesn’t actually watch his team play for too long.

That significant numbers advantage did seem to work against a Liverpool side already naturally predisposed to complacency and insouciance, particularly that of the late variety.

“I thought it would mean that it would be a bit more easy but it wasn’t,” said Slot, having spent the final minutes of ample stoppage time introducing Andy Robertson and Trey Nyoni for Ekitike and Wirtz to park the bus for a baffling backs-to-the-wall job.

“They still had a free-kick,” he continued, “and I thought against nine we would keep them away from our goal but it looked like we had nine and they had 11 as they kept attacking.”

That might be more damning and requiring of considerable introspection in ordinary circumstances but when it comes to Spurs, Liverpool and particularly Spurs versus Liverpool, drawing reasoned conclusions or rational judgements can often be the most illogical reaction.