NOS Football••Amended
Liverpool won 1-2 in a turbulent match against Tottenham Hotspur. For an hour, coach Arne Slot’s team played against ten men, after Spurs midfielder Xavi Simons was sent off for stepping on Virgil van Dijk’s Achilles tendon.
Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitike scored for Liverpool. Richarlison returned the favor just before the end. Tottenham even ended the game with nine men after Cristian Romero was sent off.
The foul on Van Dijk was accidental, Simons informed the Dutch captain, but the referee ruled after seeing the images that the action was too rash.
Indignant, Simons, who also received an encouraging hand from fellow countryman Ryan Gravenberch, trudged to the side.
Simons apologized on Instagram: “Mistakes happen. Virgil is my captain. I would never deliberately hurt him or anyone else. To my teammates, the trainer and the fans: I take responsibility, I am really sorry.”
With eleven against ten men, the Spurs goal was surrounded, but the resistance was broken after an hour. The very expensive purchase Florian Wirtz gave his first assist (he did not score yet), on substitute Isak. The striker hit hard, but was so injured by the tackle of Spurs defender Micky van de Ven that he had to be substituted.
Spurs hit the crossbar with some luck. But soon afterwards, a header from Ekitike, assisted by the fifth Dutchman in the match, Jeremie Frimpong, made the decision. Frimpong made his return after being injured in October.
But Tottenham came back ten minutes before time. Richarlison got the ball in front of his feet and scored (1-2).
With ten of them, Tottenham started a final offensive that was full of upheavals and restless moments. You could hardly speak of football, Romero received his second yellow card and Spurs chased the equalizer with nine men. Serious opportunities at 2-2 came via Richarlison (blocked) and Pedro Porro (saved). But he didn’t fall.
City and Arsenal
Earlier in the day, Manchester City achieved an easy win over West Ham United, partly thanks to a goal from Tijjani Reijnders. The score was 3-0 at the Etihad Stadium.
After just five minutes the ball was in the net thanks to Erling Haaland, who initially found goalkeeper Alphonse Aréola in his way but then scored himself from the rebound.
The 2-0 was scored by Reijnders, who scored hard and high from close range after good preparatory work by Rayan Cherki and an assist from Haaland. Haaland scored for the 3-0 in the second half.
City was the leader for a few hours after the victory, but later in the evening Arsenal regained first place. With Jurriën Timber in the starting line-up, the Londoners only needed a penalty from Viktor Gyokëres when they visited Everton: 0-1.
Five Dutch people
The mutual match between Dutch goalkeepers Bart Verbruggen (Brighton) and Robin Roefs (Sunderland) ended in 0-0. A total of five Dutch people were at the kick-off, with Brian Brobbey, Lutsharel Geertruida at Sunderland and Mats Wieffer at the home club.
Joël Veltman came on for Wieffer at the start of the second half. Sunderland is doing surprisingly well in fifth place as a promoted club.
Newcastle United and Chelsea also drew: 2-2 was the score at St. James Park. With Justin Kluivert in the starting line-up, Bournemouth drew 1-1 against Burnley.
Historical series Wolves
Keane Lewis-Potter, on behalf of Brentford, ensured that Wolverhampton’s ordeal was not over before the holidays: 0-2. Lewis-Potter scored twice, meaning Wolverhampton still has not won and only has two points.
Never before has a Premier League team had such a bad run in the first 17 games of the season. In 2007, the previous record holder Derby County already had 6 points after 17 games.
