{"id":7851,"date":"2022-05-07T22:32:51","date_gmt":"2022-05-07T22:32:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/?p=7851"},"modified":"2022-05-07T22:32:51","modified_gmt":"2022-05-07T22:32:51","slug":"epl-liverpools-title-hopes-fade-after-tottenham-stalemate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/?p=7851","title":{"rendered":"EPL: Liverpool\u2019s Title Hopes Fade After Tottenham Stalemate"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\">Liverpool\u2019s Premier League title hopes suffered a huge blow even though they went top of the table as Tottenham clung on for a 1-1 draw at Anfield on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The Reds edged ahead of Manchester City on goal difference, but the English champions can now afford to draw one of their remaining four games and still retain their title.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Pep Guardiola\u2019s men can retake top spot and open up a three-point lead when they host Newcastle on Sunday.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">A share of the spoils took Tottenham to within a point of fourth-placed Arsenal, but their chance of a top-four finish now also rely on the Gunners dropping points in two of their final four games.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Son Heung-min rounded off a brilliant team move to put Spurs in front on 56 minutes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Luis Diaz\u2019s deflected shot levelled 16 minutes from time, but Jurgen Klopp\u2019s men failed to find a winner.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Twenty-one points separate the sides, but Spurs have made a habit of saving their best for the big occasion.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Antonio Conte\u2019s men are unbeaten in all four meetings with City and Liverpool this season.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Liverpool did not start like a side fatigued by reaching the Champions League final in their 57th game of the season against Villarreal in midweek, as the intense press from the home side penned Tottenham in.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">However, the visitors were first to seriously threaten when Alisson Becker had to be sharp off his line to prevent Harry Kane\u2019s cross reaching Son and Rodrigo Bentancur fired the follow-up far too close to the Brazilian stopper.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Liverpool\u2019s best efforts before the break came from set-pieces as Virgil van Dijk hit the crossbar, while Diaz also tested Hugo Lloris after being teed up by Sadio Mane.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Spurs also hit the woodwork in the first-half when Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg took aim from long range.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The second-half followed the same pattern, with Liverpool camped in the Tottenham half, but this time Spurs did pick them off on the counter-attack.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Kane was given time to assess his options and picked out Ryan Sessegnon who slid the ball across the box for Son to tap in his 20th Premier League goal of the season to move within two of Mohamed Salah.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">It was the first time Liverpool have trailed at Anfield in a league match since February and Spurs could have doubled their lead had Son controlled another Sessegnon cross moments later.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Salah did his best to extend his advantage in the race for the Golden Boot and rescue the Reds\u2019 title challenge only to be denied by a brilliant block from Ben Davies.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Diaz swung the match and the tie in midweek as Klopp\u2019s men came from 2-0 down on the night to win 3-2 against Villarreal and reach a third Champions League final in five seasons.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The Colombian has been a sensational signing since arriving in January and made another contribution with a slice of fortune.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Diaz\u2019s shot from outside the box took a huge deflection off Bentancur to wrong-foot Lloris.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">But Liverpool will have to settle for a shot at cup glory unless City stumble as Tottenham held firm in the closing stages.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Klopp\u2019s men, who have already lifted the League Cup, face Chelsea in the FA Cup final next weekend and then Real Madrid for the European Cup in Paris on May 28.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s2\">AFP<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Liverpool\u2019s Premier League title hopes suffered a huge blow even though they went top of the table as Tottenham clung on for a 1-1 draw at Anfield on Saturday. The Reds edged ahead of Manchester City on goal difference, but the English champions can now afford to draw one of their remaining four games and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7852,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[223,828,4697,4698],"class_list":["post-7851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-epl","tag-liverpool","tag-title-hopes","tag-tottenham"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7851"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7851"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7853,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7851\/revisions\/7853"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}