Liverpool have defeated Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 at Anfield to pick up their first Premier League win of 2017 and climb back into the top four.
The Reds, with just one win in 10 overall this calendar year prior to this victory on home soil, had two first-half goals from Sadio Mane to thank for the three points.
Tottenham's third loss of the season, each coming away to a top-four rival, seemed inevitable after a quarter of the match as they badly struggled to recover and were justifiably beaten for the first time in 14 games.
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Tottenham struggled to grab any sort of foothold on the match in the opening 45 minutes, in fact, and they were two down in the space of 138 first-half seconds.
A nice reverse pass from Georginio Wijnaldum in midfield allowed Mane to chase down the ball, and he kept his nerve and composure to mark his first Anfield start of 2017 with a big strike for his side.
The second was a similarly sloppy one for the visitors to concede, as Eric Dier was this time caught napping on the ball and made to pay by an up-for-it Mane.
The Senegalese initially opted to lay it off to Adam Lallana, who was kept out by Hugo Lloris, while James Milner also failed to find a way past the Frenchman from the follow-up attempt.
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The loose ball fell nicely to Mane to blast home his second, though, as Spurs shipped two goals inside the opening 20 minutes - as many as they had in the same timeframe in their previous 24 games.
Liverpool were not content with just the two goals, sensing that the Lilywhites still had more mistakes in them, with deputy left-back Ben Davies in particular struggling as his flank was left exposed by attack-minded midfielder Son Heung-min.
Mane was denied a hat-trick by Lloris 23 minutes in from a bullet drive towards the corner, just moments after picking out the side-netting when again played through on goal.
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Spurs were failing to learn their lessons, seeing Philippe Coutinho and Lucas Leiva both squander chances in a one-sided first half on Merseyside, with the visitors' only opening seeing Son blocked by the legs of an otherwise-untested Simon Mignolet.
Mauricio Pochettino would no doubt have used half time to remind his players that they recovered from two down to rescue a 2-2 draw with Manchester City less than a month ago, but there was no sign of a repeat as the chances simply did not arrive in the quietest of second halves.
Liverpool were happy to sit back a little more, while at the same time winning most of the midfield battles, though it took until Joel Matip's header on the 70-minute mark for the next attempt to arrive.
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Coutinho sent a shot wide from 25 yards out soon after, as Liverpool's impressive run against top-half sides - standing at six wins and five draws from 12 games prior to today - looked set to continue.
That proved to be the case as Spurs, who had the chance to claw within six points of leaders Chelsea with victory here, failed to muster a single attempt on target in the second half to surely see their hopes of top-flight silverware come to an end.
Daniel Lewis
