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| Mario Balotelli (left) and Daniel Sturridge (right) celebrate with Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard (centre) after he puts Liverpool 2-0 up from the penalty spot |
That is 14-0 now. Liverpool have scored 14 goals without reply against Tottenham Hotspur, going back to March 10, 2013. On that day, Stewart Downing and Steven Gerrard claimed the last two in a 3-2 victory. The following season Liverpool won 9-0 on aggregate. Now this. It was meant to be a new era under Mauricio Pochettino, but new eras don’t tend to last long around White Hart Lane. Don’t worry, there will be another along in a minute.
This is, of course, the post-Suarez era at Liverpool and Sunday was the brightest it has looked. The visitors were worth the impressive margin of victory and could have had more if Mario Balotelli, in particular, had taken his first half chances. Balotelli missed two free headers and a long-range shot into an unguarded net, but his debut was exciting nonetheless.
His movement, energy and commitment were close to a ten, even if his finishing was a two. There were no great shocks beyond his garish footwear, though, and he even stood gallantly aside to let Gerrard take Liverpool’s second-half penalty. When his number came up after 61 minutes, Balotelli walked calmly to the touchline and shook Rodgers’ hand. It was a smart move, giving him an early debut and Tottenham’s defence looks to have been flattered by opening league games against West Ham United and Queens Park Rangers. They had not conceded going into this match: within 45 minutes they could have been 4-0 down.
With Balotelli there is no such thing as a quiet afternoon, and so it proved. He could have scored a goal after three minutes, a hat-trick before half-time, he nearly got snapped in half by Eric Dier and sported a collection of the most outrageous footwear this side of Elton John in Pinball Wizard guise.
As a performance it was close to impossible to evaluate, however. Balotelli contrived to be effective and yet wasteful, and was saved by the finishing of his team-mates. Had the game finished goalless, those first-half chances would have been scrutinised more harshly.
Balotelli arrived in enormous bright red training shoes, a photographer’s dream, and changed into boots, one pink the other pale blue, that were equally made for a lens.
He is box office, no doubt of that and from Liverpool’s first attack could have captured the headlines as well as the pictures. It was Raheem Sterling’s cross that picked him out at the far post, surprisingly unguarded by Tottenham’s napping defence. It should have been a goal, but instead his header found goalkeeper Hugo Lloris. The ball bounced back, but Balotelli could not turn it in.
In the 14th minute, same again. Gerrard struck a free-kick from the left, the sound of gentle snoring emanated from Tottenham’s back four, and Balotelli missed with another far post header. It was just past the half hour when Balotelli had the chance to mark his debut with the spectacular.
It would certainly not have been undeserved after some superbly tenacious work from deep set Daniel Sturridge free on the right. Lloris was quick off his line, but cleared only as far as Balotelli, who had a free shot at goal from 30 yards. His detractors think he lacks the common sense to be nervous, but this suggested otherwise. His effort was, frankly, woeful; rotten enough to provoke a rueful smile from Rodgers on the touchline.
Between those last chances came a thundering tackle from Dier which would have been classified as a welcome to the Premier League moment had Balotelli not been more familiar with the competition than Tottenham’s full-back.
There were 21 other players on the field, though, and many of the ones in red shirts also did things that were noteworthy; not least Sterling, probably the brightest light in the English game right now.
It was his goal that gave Liverpool the lead after eight minutes, an event made all the more heartening by the fact it was created by two of his England team-mates. Sturridge played a low pass to Jordan Henderson and when Dier made the fatal error of allowing his cross to run, Sterling’s intelligent movement allowed him a simple conversion at the far post.
It could have been more. Sturridge was on three occasions set up for shots from mid-range – twice by Sterling and also a neat Balotelli back-heel – and a quite brilliant second-half run by Sterling ended with the most disappointing finish. “He went through like Ricky Villa and finished like Ricky Gervais,” said Rodgers. Harsh, that: on Ricky Gervais.
It meant Liverpool had to settle for just three this time – Tottenham lost by four and five last season – but both goals were special in their way. After Dier had tugged Joe Allen, Gerrard stepped up to score his 43rd penalty for the club, breaking the record held by Jan Molby.
Lloris guessed the correct side, but the shot was too well-positioned for it to make a difference. Balotelli is something of an expert from 12 yards, too, and had requested the duty when he signed. Rodgers told him that, no, Liverpool’s captain would be keeping the job and his decision was vindicated. So harmony reigns, for now at least.
Hoping to spark revival, in the 59th minute Pochettino introduced Andros Townsend, and he made an immediate impact, caught in possession for the goal that put the game beyond Tottenham’s reach. Townsend’s first touch turned the ball over to Alberto Moreno, who sped down the left flank, sized up the angle in an instant, and lashed the ball past Lloris, for 14 unopposed.
After his unfortunate appearance against Manchester City last Monday, caught out for the first goal, this was more like it from Liverpool’s new signing.
What did Tottenham offer by way of resistance? In the tenth minute, a speculative long ball by Nabil Bentaleb set Emmanuel Adebayor clear, but his lob was too ambitious and travelled high over the bar.
Another speculative punt, this time from Younes Kaboul was nodded down by Adebayor to Nacer Chadli, who forced the only demanding save of the game from Liverpool goalkeeper Simon Mignolet. That Liverpool could be vulnerable to the long ball again is slightly worrying; that this was Tottenham’s most effective route to goal more so.
Still, for Rodgers it was a big win. After a humbling night in Manchester last week, his overhauled Liverpool team now break for international football in a brighter frame of mind. This was a test, and they passed. Back to back defeats against elite teams – or an aspiring one here, at least – would have called into question Liverpool’s status as title challengers without Luis Suarez.
This, however, was impressive: a result on which to build.
