Alex Keble highlights the key talking points from Liverpool's 6-3 win at Tottenham Hotspur.
The theory that Arne Slot’s football is all about calmness and control is perhaps a little overstated.
A surreal nine-goal thriller at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium ended in a richly-deserved 6-3 victory for Liverpool, who will be four points clear, with a match in hand, at the top of the Premier League on Christmas Day.
This will be the 21st time Liverpool have been top of the English top flight on Christmas Day; the most of any side. They’ve gone on to win the title in 11, or 55 per cent, of those previous 20 seasons.
This was the highest-scoring Premier League match since Manchester City beat Manchester United 6-3 back in October 2022 - and it was pretty much as bonkers as that one, with slack defending from both sides contributing to a classic in north London.
It might not have been a game typical of the Slot era so far, but the final match before Christmas did sum up this weird and wonderfully entertaining 2024/25 campaign.
Leaders Liverpool will be hard to catch
Despite conceding three goals – and eight across their last three Premier League matches – Slot will be satisfied with a powerful attacking display likely to strike yet more fear into the hearts of their title rivals.
Liverpool’s lead is looking all the healthier in the context of Sunday’s matches.
Earlier in the day, Chelsea drew a blank at Everton and struggled to create chances, which contrasted sharply with the way Liverpool’s forwards gifted each other opportunities.
Luis Diaz, given a rare start up front, took his two goals superbly and looked for all the world like a true No 9, and Cody Gakpo’s directness menaced Pedro Porro, while Dominik Szoboszlai was razor-sharp.
With Diogo Jota and Darwin Nunez to come off the bench, there’s already enough to suggest Liverpool’s goalscoring form is unlikely to dip any time soon – and that’s before we even get to Mohamed Salah.
On Liverpool being top at Christmas, Slot said post-match: "Of course, it means something. You know, just as well as I know because I've won the league once, how hard it is to win it. You have to keep on going, keep on going. Every three days you have to be on top of your game, every minute of the game.
"That's why it is so hard to win it because it's not always easy to show up every three or four days. I didn't expect Chelsea to drop points today as well, so it can happen in every game and that's what makes this league so special. That's why so many people want to see it and that's why we play at Christmas time."
Salah’s genius makes Liverpool the best team
Salah’s two goals and two assists took him to a staggering 26 goal involvements from just 16 Premier League matches – and broke THREE more records.
He became the first player in the competition’s history to hit double figures for goals and assists before Christmas, as well as the first player to do so in six separate seasons, while this is the sixth Premier League season in which Salah has both scored and assisted 10+ goals; the most of any player in the competition’s history, overtaking Wayne Rooney’s five.
More than Slot’s tactical changes (which, with goals flying in at both ends, were not particularly present today), it’s the X factor of Salah’s form that’s put Liverpool so far clear at the top.
Liverpool are relentless and the football fluid, but more often than not it’s a moment of magic from Salah that sets them on their way.
You would back him to star again in some kind-looking fixtures over the next two weeks - at home to Leicester City and Manchester United and at West Ham United - such is his consistency, as Slot commented upon after the match.
“He understands what it takes to be at this level every three days,” Slot said. “That’s what impresses me the most. He understands how hard he has to work for the quality he shows.”
Spurs’ defensive frailties are exposed again
Things feel very different for Spurs.
Ange Postecoglou was without Guglielmo Vicario, Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero, while left-back Destiny Udogie was not fit enough to start, leaving a depleted defence that just couldn’t cope with the waves of Liverpool attack.
But it wasn’t just the defensive side that went wrong.
Tiredness was one of the reasons cited by Postecoglou after the game, and although injuries and fatigue are important caveats, it does not entirely explain Spurs’ soft underbelly on Sunday, nor their place in the bottom half of the table.
Postecoglou has continually faced questions about the style of football deployed, but one perhaps not raised often enough is the impact is all-out attacking football has on the mind and the body.
Are the sluggish performances and injuries partly the consequence of Postecoglou’s singularly aggressive tactics?
Spurs have now conceded 31 goals in Premier League home matches in 2024, their most in a single calendar year since 2007, when they let in 34, while they conceded six in one home match for the first time since December 1997.
Their Expected Goals Conceded of 4.6 against Liverpool was by some distance the largest total of any team in the Matchweek.
This was a new low, then, although of course comfort can be taken in acknowledging just how good their opponents were: “A bridge too far for us,” said Postecoglou, while lavishing Slot’s side with praise.
Nevertheless, the manner of the defeat will sting – though not as much as looking at the league table this Christmas.
Spurs are closer to Crystal Palace in 16th than they are to the top four, where Nottingham Forest sit eight points clear of Postecoglou’s side.
Forest are up next on Boxing Day, and defeat at the City Ground would put an alarming 11-point gap between Spurs and the UEFA Champions League places.
The idea of Forest being so far ahead of Spurs would have been inconceivable at the start of the campaign.
It’s a great example of why 2024/25 is one of the strangest and most entertaining in Premier League history.
But an even better example was the wild and unwieldy 90 minutes witnessed on Sunday.