IT will soon be April and Tottenham Hotspur have not won a Premier League game since February 10. Liverpool, meanwhile, are top of the table having lost one league game all season. When the two meet at Anfield tomorrow, there is therefore a logical expectation about the outcome.
Yet it does not feel as clearcut as that. Liverpool are 15 points ahead of Tottenham, having played a game more, yet it does not feel as clear-cut as that. Liverpool have won more league games, scored more goals and conceded fewer, yet it does not feel as clear-cut as that.
This is not because of any doubt regarding Liverpool’s ability to push results across the line; it is more about Mauricio Pochettino and the team he has assembled at White Hart Lane over the past five years – the fifth anniversary of him succeeding Tim Sherwood comes in May. Pochettino and his players have earned respect.
They have reached the last eight of the Champions League, too, so their recent Premier League form comes with a caveat, at least one. There have also been injuries.
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Consequently, the last thing Jurgen Klopp will be tomorrow is complacent. As he said yesterday: “How can you go in against Tottenham and think: ‘Yeah, we will win it’?”
Complicating this sensible approach is Liverpool’s situation. By kick-off the Reds are unlikely to be top of the table – Manchester City are at Fulham at lunchtime today and anything other than an away win would count as the shock of the season. So Liverpool will be responding.
That in itself creates pressure, but this will be Klopp’s reality until – if – City slip. Thus Tottenham at home, as hard as it is, has become a must-win game for Liverpool. Klopp, understandably, chooses to see it in less black-and-white terms but then he does not just manage a football team, he is managing a global club with a yearning fanbase and blasts of shrill anxiety. He must feel like a reassurance salesman.
Even after the hiatus of the international break, Klopp was immediately asked about excitement and once again he replied: “Yes, people should be excited. If we are not enthusiastic in this moment, when are you? The Premier League is like that, we’re still in the fight for the title and that’s very positive. I want people to feel that.”
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After Spurs, it is Southampton away on Friday, Porto at home in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final, then Chelsea at home on Sunday week. There was a time not so long ago when Spurs were mentioned in these title permutations, but the run from February 10 of losing at Burnley, Chelsea and Southampton and drawing, luckily, at home to Arsenal – albeit while progressing in Europe – has changed perceptions.
To tweak an old joke, if Spurs are not careful, they could soon find themselves fifth in a three-horse race. The long-awaited opening of the new stadium, Pochettino said, will bring impetus. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s contract at Old Trafford closes down a distraction – the international break has brought Tottenham some breathing space as well.
Of course, many fans lament these interruptions but the manner in which Klopp and Pochettino spoke yesterday suggests it has done them good. Tomorrow brings the first major test of the title run-in, a test of freshness in the title marathon.
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