Martin Skrtel scored at both ends as Liverpool suffered another defeat on the road, although the performance and attacking intent was much improved of late. But Aaron Lennon’s late goal meant all the Reds previous hard work was for nothing.
Skrtel opened the scoring with his first goal of the season, poking home after his header from a Lucas free-kick had hit David Ngog and bounced kindly for the Slovakian to take the goal well by finishing into the corner.
Maxi Rodriguez should have doubled the visitor’s advantage on the stroke of half-time, he was played in after good link up play with Torres but the Argentinian chose to try and round the keeper when through one on one and wasted a glorious chance.
Torres also squandered glorious chances either side of half-time, and those three misses proved crucial as Spurs came from behind to win.
At 1-0 Jermaine Defoe missed a penalty, awarded after David Ngog handled the ball in the wall from a dubious Gareth Bale free-kick.
But Spurs levelled when Skrtel turned the ball into his own net after Luca Modric outpaced and got inbetween Carragher and Johnson down the Reds’ right of defence.
And Lennon’s goal in injury time came about from more poor defending, this time the much maligned Paul Konchesky was caught well out of position, allowing Lennon in to nick in and finish past Reina.
Liverpool were also dealt a blow with Jamie Carragher being forced off with a dislocated shoulder on his 450th Premier League appearance.
Tottenham: Gomes, Hutton, Kaboul (Bassong), Gallas, Assou-Ekotto, Lennon, Palacios, Modric, Bale, Van der Vaart (Defoe, Sandro), Crouch
Subs not used: Cudicini, Pavlyuchenko, Kranjcar, Corluk
Liverpool: Reina, Johnson, Carragher (Kyrgiakos), Skrtel, Konchesky, Kuyt, Meireles, Lucas, Maxi, Torres, Ngog (Aurelio)
Subs not used: Jones, Aurelio, Jovanovic, Kyrgiakos, Babel, Poulsen, Shelvey
Attendance:
Referee: Martin Atkinson (W Yorkshire)
