Key events
We’ll discuss what it all means in a moment, but Manchester United now lead Villa 3-1, Benjamin Sesko scoring off the bench yet again.
Igor Tudor, meanwhile, makes four alterations to the side tormented by Atlético in midweek: Guglielmo Vicario replaces Antonin Kinsky in net just 16 minutes earlier than he did then, while Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven are respectively concussed and suspended, Radu Dragusin and Souza replacing them while, in attack, Dominic Solanke is in for Randal Kolo Muani.
Ch ch ch changes: Arne Slot makes five to the team beaten by Galatasaray in midweek, the headline Rio Ngumoha’s first league start. Also in are Alisson, Jeremie Frimpong, Andy Robertson and Cody Gakpo, with Giorgi Mamardashvili, Ibrahima Konate, Milos Kerkez, Mohamed Salah and Huge Ekitike dropping to the bench.
Teams!
Liverpool (4-3-3): Alisson; Frimpong, Gomez, Van Dijk, Robertson; Gravenberch, Szoboszlai, Mac Allister; Ngumoha, Wirtz, Gakpo. Subs: Mamardashvili, Konate, Kerkez, Salah, Chiesa, Jones, Ekitike, Nyoni, Ramsay.
Tottenham Hotspur (3-4-3): Vicario; Porro, Danso, Dragusin; Spence, Sarr, Gray, Souza; Richarlison, Solanke, Tel. Subs: Kinsky, Austin, Rowswell, Olusesi, Simons, Kolo Muani, Wilson.
Referee: Chris Kavanagh (Ashton-under-Lyne)
Elsewhere, in a match relevant to Spurs, Forest and Fulham are drawing 0-0 with roughly 23 minutes to go.
And of course the second of them is relevant to our game, Liverpool competing with United and Villa for a Champions League spot. The former went in front through Casemiro, Ross Barkley then equalised, and Matheus Cunha has just restored the home side’s advantage.
First things first: we’ve two bangers already in progress…
Preamble
Powerless patsies – among them cynics and sceptics, jokers and losers – acting with naivety and arrogance, making dreadful decisions as if on purpose, immense but obviously misplaced confidence gradually dwindling as threats and warnings are blithely ignored, peripheral characters departing the scene never to be seen again with those who remain reduced to meat puppets of gibbering jelly. Yes, Spurs’ season has more than a little in common with a horror movie.
But the tweak that makes their rendition uniquely compelling is the innovation of its meta aspect: the characters know they’re in a film, unable to escape a world they can’t control and fully aware there’s a worldwide audience wincing, laughing and cheering on the monster, their lives co-opted for kicks. There is no one anyone wants to be less.
In such circumstance, there is no staging post less inviting than Anfield. Just last season, many of the same players delivered one of the least vertebrate performances of all time, turning up in the second leg of the League Cup semi holding a one-goal lead before subsiding to a 4-0 defeat, terrified of even believing there was another way.
Of course, win today and suddenly life seems much less intense … except an unlikely triumph which suggests all will be well is yet another horror-movie trope. A horror-movie trope which precedes the most entertainingly gruesome carnage of all.