Tottenham 1 Liverpool 2: Mo Salah doubles Spurs as Reds survive second-half rebellion after Harry Kane goal

FOR once there was no dramatic ending for Tottenham.

And now Spurs fans have to believe their manager Antonio Conte that they have no chance of winning the title.

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Two goals from Mo Salah in the first half, despite a Harry Kane strike in the second half, were enough to give Liverpool just their fifth win.

However, the defeat means Spurs are now eight points behind neighbors Arsenal – and six behind Manchester City – and have played a game more.

Although it’s only November, Tottenham – like fickle Liverpool – can forget all title hopes.

After injury-time victories over Marseille and Bournemouth – combined with the mayhem of a disallowed goal against Sporting Lisbon well into injury-time – there was no repeat here.

Instead, Jurgen Klopp’s side, who were much better in the first half, were able to hold on to a win after back-to-back Premier League defeats to Southampton and Leeds.

Tottenham’s attacking threat was not helped by the absence of Son Heung-min but it would have been better if they had shown their second-half performance in the opening 45 minutes.

Here we saw the good and bad of Trent Alexander-Arnold in an entertaining game, dodging Tottenham’s midfield with some outrageous diagonal passes to Darwin Nunez but being untrustworthy defensively.

Gareth Southgate has a big decision to make about Alexander-Arnold when he names his World Cup squad on Thursday.

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Eric Dier, also hoping for an appeal, delivered a klanger to hand Mo Salah’s second goal on a plate.

Spurs could hardly tell they hadn’t been warned when Salah cornered the ball in the 11th minute.

Nunez has already had a couple of chances and one of his shots will have landed in the left palm of Spurs keeper Hugo Lloris.

Uruguayan striker Nunez also provided the assist for Salah, who controlled the pass with one touch before firing a shot past Ryan Sessegnon’s outstretched leg.

That opening goal woke Tottenham up.

They responded with the first decent attack of the game. Kane’s cross to Ivan Perisic caught keeper Alisson in the face and the ball deflected back and hit the post.

Alisson got lucky seconds later when he spilled a shot from Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg but there were no home players to pounce on.

Alexander-Arnold was lucky too, poking Sessegnon in the back in the penalty area, but clearly it wasn’t hard enough to convince VAR to miss a penalty.

In contrast to Dier, Alexander-Arnold also made a few more defensive errors and got away with them.

After a long punt from Alisson, Dier delivered a suicidal header down Salah’s run and Liverpool’s Egyptian sprinted clear and took a couple of touches before lifting the ball over the advancing and totally exposed Lloris.

Not that they could be any worse, but the Spurs were a lot better after the break.

Dier’s header was saved by Alisson and Perisic hit a shot against the bar.

Some of Tottenham’s crosses, where Rodrigo Bentancur was one of the culprits, were absolutely awful.

Lloris denied Salah his hat-trick and Conte finally made some changes.

There was much jubilation when Dejan Kulusevski, who had been out since September with a hamstring injury, replaced Ryan Sessegnon with just over 20 minutes to go, while Matt Doherty also came on as a substitute.

The duo made an immediate impression. Doherty let go of Kulusevski and his clever pass to Kane was met with a stunning finish.

Tempers became frayed and then Conte was handed his yellow card for getting sloppy and knocking a football out of the hands of a member of Liverpool’s backroom team.

And Spurs ran out of breath until the final minute when Bentancur, a yard from goal, was excruciatingly close to reaching the end of Kane’s header.

However, there was no drama or chaos on this occasion, although all Spurs fans remained seated.

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