Tottenham silence Mohamed Salah and beat Liverpool two weeks after being crushed by Reds, so what changed?

Spurs, with a makeshift backline once again, managed to end Liverpool's 24-game unbeaten streak with two teens and a new goalkeeper starring

LONDON -- Hey, look at Tottenham, doing as good a job as anyone in months of shutting down Mohamed Salah. Who would have thought? Not me.

After all, this remains so far short of prime Spurs on the defensive end. This ground had seen the damage that Salah and company could wreak on what was four-fifths of the same backline that had run six past them just before Christmas. The presence of debutant Antonin Kinsky would help no end, particularly when Tottenham had possession, but it seemed hard to believe that this patched-up Spurs could do something it hadn't achieved against domestic opposition since the second week of August, keep a clean sheet. Winning in the process too? Scarcely credible.

The best player in the world would surely be too much. Not, Tottenham concluded, if they kept the ball from getting to him. That is just what transpired. Liverpool did what Liverpool do, their build-up cleaving towards the right even in the absence of Trent Alexander-Arnold. That gave Spurs a target. Whenever the ball went to Conor Bradley, the white shirts snapped at his heels. His heels in particular. Heung-min Son, Djed Spence, occasionally Yves Bissouma: they all seemed to have one goal, make Liverpool go the long way round to Salah.