José Mourinho claimed the “best team lost” after Roberto Firmino’s late header at Anfield gave Liverpool a 2-1 victory against Tottenham to take the champions top of the Premier League.
While Jürgen Klopp characterised a victory that displaced Spurs as leaders as “really special”, Mourinho also criticised the German’s touchline behaviour, speculating he would have been sent off if “grabbing” the fourth official’s board as he claimed his opposite number did.
Liverpool’s victory made it 66 home league matches unbeaten and takes them to 25 points after 13 games, three more than the previous leaders Tottenham. While Liverpool dominated the contest, in the second half the visitors hit a post through Stephen Bergwijn and Harry Kane missed with a header from close range, Son Heung-min’s 33rd-minute goal having equalised Mohamed Salah’s opener for Liverpool.
“I told him [Klopp]the best team lost and he disagreed, but that’s his opinion,” Mourinho said. “If I behave the same way he does on the touchline, I do not stay there. That’s [only] animated? Do you want me to take the board with the added time from the fourth official’s hands and see what happens to me? For some reason I am different.”
Unsurprisingly Klopp had a different view. “The win was absolutely deserved,” he said. “They are a top side – a counterattacking monster – so you have to be really focused, and because they don’t want the ball too much you have to play around them and keep them busy. We did that really, really well. What a wonderful goal to win it, a nice corner [from Andy Robertson] and a sensational header from Bobby.”
The Liverpool manager added: “[Mourinho] didn’t say anything to me about my behaviour on the touchline. I thought he said the best team lost. It was not heated at all. I thought he was joking, but he wasn’t. So that’s it.”
Mourinho bemoaned his side’s spurned chances as Spurs lost for the first time in the league since the opening day of the season against Everton. “You have to kill a match of this dimension – and the game was there,” he said. “First we have Stephen Bergwijn’s face-to-face with the keeper. Then we have the corner and header from Harry, plus other counterattack positions.”
He was, though, content with the overall display. “The team was brilliant,” Mourinho said. “Today Liverpool didn’t look a team that is champion, European champion, world champion – that difference was not on the pitch. Even a draw would not have been the best taste – we had it there to kill it but we missed the chance. We were so close to winning: a draw would be a bad result – so you can imagine how we feel with a defeat.
“It was a very good performance, of course there were some mistakes, some things to improve. My team told me I am right when I say from the beginning of the season we go to every match to win. We played against the champions in their stadium and we had the best chances to win.”
Having previously described his side as “just a pony” in the title race, Mourinho also insisted he is now at ease describing Tottenham as firmly in the title hunt. “The first thing that makes title contenders is to go to every match to win it with that ambition and I promise you the ambition is there,” he said. “If in any match you see us not trying to win it is not that we don’t want it is because the opponent pushes us to different situations.”
Liverpool’s ascendancy was underlined by their 200 passes in the final third to Spurs’ count of just 19 with Klopp taking aim at Mourinho and his side over their lack of adventure. “If you ask me now, I can’t remember the 19. That’s how it is. But it’s fine. Different approaches, different ways to play,” he said.
“It was one of our best performances, pretty special – a massive three points. It’s the respect the boys deserve – or earned, that they [Spurs] think: ‘OK, sit deep against them like this.’ We have to deal with that. Of course they had chances, they are a world-class team, they are outstanding.
“They will be top of the table until the end of the season because they are really good. But to play against them is a proper challenge and to play like us, is pretty special.” – Guardian
