Villa eyeing the Champions League, Liverpool smashing Spurs' top four bid

Despite Aston Villa’s 1-0 loss at Brighton on Sunday, Liverpool’s 4-2 victory against Tottenham crushed their ambitions of finishing in the Premier League’s top four. This put Aston Villa in danger of qualifying for the Champions League.

Tottenham’s chances of qualifying for the Champions League were severely damaged after they lost for the fourth time in a row at Anfield, where they needed to win to cut the distance on fourth-place Villa.

Villa leads fifth-place Tottenham by seven points. Although Tottenham still has a game to play, a victory in one of their final two games will prevent them from finishing in the top four.

After being left out of Liverpool’s lineup for the draw against West Ham last weekend, Mohamed Salah was back in the lineup.

Before coming in as a replacement at the London Stadium, the Egypt striker and Klopp got into a heated argument. The forward then fueled the flames by threatening to speak about the altercation, claiming there would be “fire” if he did so.

In the 16th minute, during the last few weeks of his nine-year tenure, Klopp was jubilant when Salah scored his 25th goal of the season in all competitions with a fine header from Cody Gakpo’s cross.

After Guglielmo Vicario had saved Salah’s attempt, Scotland’s left-back Andrew Robertson scored Liverpool’s second goal just before halftime.

Worse was yet to come for poor Tottenham, as Gakpo headed in a cross from Harvey Elliott in the 50th minute. Elliott scored the fourth goal with an incredible curler from 20 yards out in the 59th minute.

Even though Richarlison cut the deficit in the 72nd minute and set up Son Heung-min’s goal five minutes later, there was little comfort to Tottenham.

Despite having a mathematical opportunity to win the championship after winning their first three league games, third-place Liverpool really has little hope as leaders Arsenal lead them by five points with two games remaining.

AFP