Liverpool returned to winning ways in a six-goal thriller with Tottenham.
Mohamed Salah broke the deadlock after the opening quarter of an hour when he headed home from Cody Gakpo’s sublime cross to the far post.
The Reds doubled their lead shortly before half-time through Andy Robertson pouncing after Guglielmo Vicario spilled a Salah effort in the penalty area.
Gakpo added a third early in the second half after Harvey Elliott sent an inch-perfect delivery for him to meet with a deft header in front of The Kop.
Harvey Elliott took things up another level with a sublime long-range drive from 20 yards which nestled perfectly into Vicario’s top left-hand corner.
But Richarlison made a dent in the visitors’ deficit by scoring against the run of play as he slotted past Alisson after being teed up by Brennan Johnson.
Son Heung-min clawed back another for the Lilywhites, sweeping home a second from Richarlison teeing him up to set up a nervy finale for the hosts.
Jurgen Klopp’s side remain third in the Premier League table, five points off the summit, heading into their final three games of the current campaign.
Here were the key talking points from Anfield:
Pressure-free Reds revive hunger
Jurgen Klopp’s latest hope for his final games at Liverpool soon came true.
The outgoing German had set his side the target of playing their best football after several nerve-shredding weeks derailed their Premier League title bid.
Free of the pressure of the now two-horse race, the Reds provided an instant response to Klopp’s expectations at the outset of Tottenham’s visit to Anfield.
The hosts’ renewed hunger to hunt possession and forge openings should have yielded earlier openers but for the crossbar and a goal-line clearance.
By the interval they had already moved into a commanding two-goal lead and arguably could have been further ahead given their near-total dominance.
At times it bordered on exhibition stuff in the second half, with Harvey Elliott’s wonder strike the pick of the goals, rifled into the top corner from 20 yards.
Cynics will still question why it took several to reach those levels again before a nervy finale after conceding two preventable goals in swift succession.
It’s a valid complaint and one even their own manager is at a loss to explain.
…but clean sheet wait goes on
Even such an emphatic performance still carried drawbacks for Liverpool.
Richarlison have ended the latest return to his former Merseyside parish on the losing side but still managed to put one over on his one-time bete noire.
The ex-Everton forward’s second-half cameo was the catalyst for Tottenham’s attempt to belatedly claw back a previously insurmountable four-goal deficit.
Slotting past Brazil teammate Alisson, Richarlison ensured that Klopp’s side would be denied a clean sheet for a ninth successive Premier League game.
At Anfield, that figure into double figures while all competitions has seen a return of just one shutout in 14 since March’s smash-and-grab win over Nottingham Forest.
Goal differential has become a relative non-issue with the title now out of reach and none of the European hopefuls able to catch their 78-point haul.
Still, the need to tighten up is a concern for Klopp’s eventual successor.
Klopp can’t fight farewell tour
During regular spells in his nine-year reign, Klopp has cautioned the Anfield faithful about prematurely serenading him when games are in process.
With more silverware off the table, however, his penultimate outing on home soil turned into a dress rehearsal for the send-off against Wolves on May 19.
A rendition of ‘Jurgen said to me…’ went up in the 25th minute from The Kop and soon spread as the entire stadium provided a vociferous in-game eulogy.
Any possibility that Liverpool’s outgoing manager would chastise his subjects was shunned as he remained immersed in the on-field action throughout.
Further renditions were aired early in the second half alongside chants of his name, an original bone of contention whenever the subject was broached.
Internally, he will likely have felt uncomfortable at becoming the subject of supporter adulation early in a game, with his side leading by a solitary goal.
Yet the limited time that Klopp has left managing in front of home supporters, coupled with the muted season finale, took that decision out of his hands.
He had best get used to being the focal point because Kopites will not be holding back on their appreciation for him, no matter what, against Wolves.