Spurs v Liverpool | Tom Lutz

• Press F5 or hit auto-update for the latest • Email tom.lutz@guardian.co.uk with your thoughts • Follow all today’s goals with our scores service • Peruse league tables around the world here 30 min and a bit: … slams it into the wall. “Far be it from me to question your veracity, but did you really manage only to identify the shoes but not their tearstained wearer,” says Patrick Cullen. “Surely you could give us a few more clues – was there an Irish lilt to the fall of the tears, or a stoic Home Counties lip they came to rest upon? Just idle curiosity about this caring, sharing world…” I inspected everyone’s shoes in the office for days but couldn’t track the suspect down. But if you’re asking if it was Barry Glendenning, then yes, it was. 30 min: Even better new for Liverpool: Spurs have a free-kick in Bale territory. The Welshman steps up and … 28 min: RED CARD! (Adam) Things just got a lot tougher for Liverpool. He goes in on Parker’s shin and picks up his second booking. 26 min: Skrtel’s earlier injury has proven too much. He’s replaced by summer signing Coates. 23 min: Adam lines up a free-kick he plays it in to Skrtel at the far post, he nods it across goal but he was offside. If it wasn’t for techincalities like “rules” Liverpool could be 2-1 up. 21 min: Liverpool lose possession with a lazy pass again. Adebayor eventually shoots over. Gary Naylor has some thoughts on the goal. “Defoe’s poor technique lets the ball bobble away from him and Modric’s perfect technique slams the ball into the corner. A perfect illustration of why the influx of properly schooled foreign players has improved British technique not a jot. Those players outside the top clubs will never have the ability and those that are at the top club have best best foreign stars to do most of the difficult stuff for them. Still, in better news, we can write off Liverpool again I see.” 19 min: Liverpool put the ball in the net but it’s ruled offside. Spurs mess around on the edge of their own area, lose possession and Suarez pokes home but it’s disallowed. There was no need for that farce from Spurs. “What is Twitter, Mon. Lutz?,” asks J McAferty. It’s a way of athletes writing stories so journalists don’t need to. The grammar and punctuation is usually better too. 16 min: Modric releases Bale again. Liverpool just manage to clear but this is the most 5-0-looking 1-0 I’ve ever seen. 14 min: Modric is feeling zingy today. He attempts a 40-yard pass with the outside of his boot that nearly releases Bale. Seconds later he forces Reina into a good save, low to his left. Modric is playing as well as Liverpool are badly. “In some countries leaving vomit on a desk is a sign of love for the desk owner,” says Ian Copestake. “Or is that flowers?” Well, that would make sense when we take the flower budget into account. 11 min: Agger looks winded and may not continue … actually looks like he’ll soldier on. “The smell’s not an old vase of flowers is it,” asks Rory Davies “Took me three weeks to track a similar smell once. The flowers still looked lovely, but the smell was similar to a kipper left to steep in a glass of milk, seasoned with parmesan.” The Sport desk’s flower budget has been cut in recent weeks (outrage) so it’s probably not that. 10 min: Bad new Chelsea: you’ll have to fork out another £10m for Modric in January now. GOAL!!!!!!! Spurs 1-0 Liverpool (Modric 6) Wow. Well, looks like Spurs did well to hang onto him. Another attack down the right from Spurs – Liverpool have barely left their own half – it snarls up in a crush of bodies on the edge of the area and falls to Modric who curls the ball into the top corner. Magnificent. 5 min: Another great chance for Spurs. Defoe is almost on to a cross and Agger has to come in with a crunching challenge to block the shot. “Do they really pay you for this?,” asks Sean Kilgannon, coming out fighting. Hang on, I’m supposed to be paid for this? I was paying them. 3 min: Adebayor flashes a shot wide. Kranjcar runs on to a flick from Adebayor, passes it to the striker but it’s dragged wide. “Perhaps by some amazing coincidence the guy crying in the toilet cubicle was Dirk Kuyt,” says Ben Bamford. 1 min: And we’re off. Liverpool kick-off and work it back to Pepe Reina. Good positive intent. “Interesting to read about the Guardian office mysteries,” lies Paul Jackson. “They don’t quite match the Arsenal office mystery, namely how Laurent Koscielny managed to score that own goal yesterday.” 1.27pm: If you fancy reliving some great Spurs v Liverpool matches from down the years, by the way, read this week’s excellent Joy of Six . 1.24pm: Andy Carroll is back in the team today, of course. I might feel a tad harsh done by if I was Dirk Kuyt, who he replaces. No place for Gerrard on the bench yet. 1.23pm: Alarmingly, there is a strong smell of vomit coming from the subs desk at the moment. It first emerged on Friday afternoon but has gained strength over the weekend. The source of the smell is the biggest office mystery since the man in the cubicle next to me in the men’s toilets was crying one Saturday morning. I managed to identify his shoes under the door but never tracked him down. 1.19pm: Harry Redknapp is interviewed pre-game and rightly points out that it’s not exactly time to be panicking at Spurs. They may be just off the relegation places but have played the Manchesters United and City so far this season. Interesting him to hear him include Stoke as a possible challenger for the fourth Champions League place. Then again they do have Cameron Jerome now. 12.54pm: Your teams are in: Tottenham: Friedel, Walker, Kaboul, King, Assou-Ekotto, Kranjcar, Parker, Modric, Bale, Adebayor, Defoe. Subs: Cudicini, Pavlyuchenko, Van der Vaart, Giovani, Bassong, Corluka, Livermore. Liverpool: Reina, Skrtel, Carragher, Agger, Jose Enrique, Henderson, Lucas, Adam, Downing, Suarez, Carroll. Subs: Doni, Maxi, Coates, Kuyt, Spearing, Bellamy, Robinson. Referee: Mike Jones (Cheshire) Tom will be here from 1pm or so. In the meantime, here’s a quick match preview: Harry Redknapp’s distaste for the Europa League had veered into parody by the time he fielded just one of the team to have beaten Wolves last Sunday, but the importance he placed on this fixture was genuine. Spurs’s early-season form has been dubious and if they are to end their six-month recession then victory against nominal rivals and a team whom they beat twice last season would be a start. This is a big game for Kenny Dalglish, too – the Liverpool manager seemed disproportionately vexed after the defeat by Stoke. Match pointers • Since taking over at Spurs, Harry Redknapp has overseen five wins from seven games in all competitions against Liverpool and in only one of those games has his side failed to score at least one • Jamie Carragher has scored the same number of Premier League goals for Liverpool in his career as he has own goals for Tottenham (three) • Tottenham have conceded as many goals (14) in their past six home matches as they did in the previous 25 at White Hart Lane • Liverpool have kept only one clean sheet in their past seven Premier League matches Premier League Tottenham Hotspur Liverpool Tom Lutz guardian.co.uk

Posted by on September 18, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.