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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
Sport
Paul Gorst

What Jurgen Klopp did at full-time against Tottenham shows Liverpool still have something they shouldn't have needed

In a season of pulls, twangs and knocks, Liverpool can add a new name to their long list of injury victims in Jurgen Klopp himself.

But the Reds boss will have absolutely no issues with his latest fitness scare after it was picked up celebrating the wildest of finishes to one of the games of the Premier League season.

Quite how Liverpool needed a 94th-minute winner from Diogo Jota in a game they led 3-0 from 15 minutes in is anyone's guess and one suspects it will be picked apart in great detail when the post-match analysis is undertaken at the AXA Centre before Fulham visit on Wednesday night.

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But for supporters themselves, maybe it's best not to dwell on the how and the why of it all when there is simply the pandemonium to get lost in. It's not been a vintage campaign by any stretch of the most red-tinted imagination but Liverpool have still given their fans plenty to cheer across the course of this strange old season. This was just the latest instalment.

And perhaps, just maybe, those chaotic scenes were made all that bit sweeter by the sight of arch-nemesis Richarlison with his head in his hands merely moments after the former Everton forward was celebrating his own effort with a shirtless chicken strut and a shushing of the home ends for their merciless booing. There was absolutely no quietening them after Jota had rifled home.

For all the drama that unfolded across an incredible 96 minutes of football, it was tempting to lose sight of the fact that this win moves the Reds into fifth and sees them take charge of the battle for the Europa League. Top-four hopes remain mathematically alive but if they fall short - which is now looking likely - Klopp at least knows he has a two-point buffer and a game-in-hand over both Spurs and Aston Villa with the latter still to visit Anfield.

Liverpool will at least enter that competition as one of the big favourites, should they qualify, and a Dublin final in 2024 at the Aviva Stadium offers a mouthwatering prospect for match-goers to dream about when those long Thursday nights games get underway in the Autumn.

But at the moment, those permutations can wait because this was simply about the elation of emerging on the right side of a gloriously unhinged 96 minutes.

Klopp made three changes to his Liverpool team as Ibrahima Konate and Harvey Elliott stepped back in, but it was the sight of Luis Diaz's name on a team sheet for the first time over six months that caught the attention as the Colombia international started his first game since the loss at Arsenal in early October.

It took Diaz barely five minutes to make his return known when he swept in from the electric Cody Gakpo's cross to score his first goal since September in Naples. It was an emotional celebration that said it all as he looked to the heavens with his arms aloft.

If the goal - and the subsequent outpouring of emotion - was a reminder of the joy in the game for Diaz, he also had his memory jogged, in no uncertain circumstances, about the physical reality of the Premier League later in the half when Oliver Skipp launched into a poor challenge to leave the South American in a heap. It was a challenge that left an unhappy Klopp furious, post-match.

That Diaz immediately returned to nut-meg his adversary was a perfect encapsulation of the teak tough mentality the ex-Porto star combines with his silky skills. His effort had in fact made it 2-0 on the day after Curtis Jones had cushioned home to give the Reds lift-off after just three minutes.

It was a goal crafted in the Liverpool Academy as the in-form and thriving Trent Alexander-Arnold clipped a gorgeous ball to the back post where Jones found himself in oceans of space to convert first time past Fraser Forster.

"How s*** must you be!? It's only 2-0!" joked the away end in a self-deprecating nod to that 5-0 scoreline Newcastle had after 20 minutes of Spurs' most recent away game the previous week. That was until Mohamed Salah marked his 300th game for the Reds by going fifth in the all-time scoring charts at Anfield, at least.

Salah scored his eighth goal against Spurs on 15 minutes when he put to bed a poor run of form from the penalty spot by rifling beyond Forster after Cristian Romero had fouled Gakpo. A rampant Reds were threatening to improve on the shocker in the north east.

After Spurs had taken the somewhat controversial decision to refund their away fans following that 6-1 collapse, it was tempting to suggest that a standing order might as well be set up as Klopp's men looked to inflict similar damage on a club with a myriad of seemingly deep-rooted problems.

As the first half wore on, however, Liverpool started to get sloppier and after Virgil van Dijk had cleared a Son Heung-min effort off the line, it was Harry Kane who volleyed Spurs back into the match from Ivan Perisic's cross after the Dutch defender had slipped looking to close the space vacated by Alexander-Arnold midfield roaming.

The loss of footing from Van Dijk was unfortunate but it is generally the sort of chance Liverpool will simply have to accept they will cough up now and then the more they ask their right-back to play two positions at once. Suddenly, the visitors smelled an unlikely route back into the game.

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At 3-1, it felt like the next goal was vital and it went the way of the north Londoners when the excellent Son sprung the offside trap before keeping his cool against Alisson. As Ryan Mason's charges poured forward in search of a leveller, they had it through Richarlison after substitute Darwin Nunez's marking left an awful lot to be desired.

The Brazilian wasted no time giving it back to the supporters who had jeered him to high Heaven upon his arrival and it looked like his intervention would be enough to seal a dramatic point.

Within seconds, his heart would be broken, however, when Jota latched on to a slack touch from Lucas Moura after a punt from Alisson. The Portugal international took his season's tally to five with a sublime left-footed finish across Forster to set up the mother of celebrations from the Kop.

Klopp, whose previous pitch-invading celebratory antics have become iconic at Liverpool, could only pull up nursing a hamstring complaint this time as everyone around him cheered the match-winning fourth.

The return of the trademark fistbumps was a much more dignified way to mark a big Anfield victory. It's a routine that has been conspicuous by its absence this term, but the Kop savoured every last one after their side made it four wins on the spin.

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