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Mohamed Salah put last week’s sideline spat withJurgen Klopp behind him by scoring first in Liverpool’s 4-2 win against Tottenham in the Premier League.
The sight of Salah arguing with his departing manager late on in Liverpool’s 2-2 draw at West Ham last week dominated debate in the following days.
But the Egyptian was back in the starting lineup and back on the scoresheet to set his team on course for victory against Spurs at Anfield.
Salah had already come close to scoring by the time he rose at the far post in the 16th minute to head in Cody Gakpo’s cross from the left.
Tottenham had been given hope in their pursuit of Champions League qualification after fourth-place Aston Villa had a surprise 1-0 loss at Brighton earlier in the day.
But the team of Ange Postecoglou, Tottenham’s Australian head coach, team never looked capable of taking advantage of that result after being outclassed by Liverpool.
He also had to respond to questions about defenders Cristian Romero and Emerson Royal getting into a heated exchange at half-time row but he said that showed “they care” about Tottenham’s recent form slide.
“In the first half today some of our pressing was back to where it should be. We lacked a cutting edge and had nothing in the final third and that makes the opposition look comfortable,” he said.
“At 4-0 we have a mountain to climb but when we play like ourselves we put pressure on the opposition. We scored two and could have had a couple more. At least we tried to play a version of ourselves.
“Hugely disappointing outcome, of course. We didn’t try to play our football.”
Recent results have left Liverpool all but out of the title reckoning but their best performance for some weeks was embellished with further goals from Andy Robertson, Gakpo and Harvey Elliott.
Tottenham grabbed late consolation with goals from Richarlison and Son Heung-min but remain seven points adrift of Villa, who suffered a setback of their own when Brighton’s Joao Pedro headed home the rebound after his 87th-minute penalty was saved by Robin Olsen.
Klopp has buried the hatchet with Salah after their recent spat.
“The boys played outstanding until we didn’t. At 4-0 up I made the changes and we lost organisation definitely in that moment and then you could see how good Tottenham could be if we would have let them before,” Klopp said.
“But we were good in pretty much all areas. The goals were outstanding. Mo was outstanding and really happy for him that he could play the way he played today. We can see what he’s capable of.”
Meanwhile Chelsea kept up their electric goalscoring form at home and boosted their hopes of European soccer next season with a 5-0 thrashing of West Ham.
Mauricio Pochettino’s side have now scored 22 times in their last six Premier League games at Stamford Bridge, and there was a fluency to their attacking play that could well have yielded substantially more than the five they put past the hapless visitors from across London.
Chelsea were three up at the break. First, Cole Palmer netted the 21st league goal of his debut season in west London, steering a loose ball into the corner, then Conor Gallagher volleyed home.
Noni Madueke headed the third near the end of an excellent first half, before Nicolas Jackson took his tally for the season to 13 in the league with a brace after the interval.
with AAP
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