Klopp on Spurs draw: 'In life much worse things happen'

Jurgen Klopp told his players to stop behaving as if they attended a funeral after their pursuit of the quadruple was checked by Tottenham.

Liverpool failed to win a Premier League game at Anfield for the first time since October 30 after drawing 1-1 with Antonio Conte’s side; Luis Diaz’s deflected strike cancelled out Son Heung-min’s opener and the point enabled Klopp’s team to move temporarily top of the table.

But with rivals Manchester City hosting Newcastle this afternoon, the expectation is that Liverpool will be three points behind ahead of Tuesday’s difficult trip to Aston Villa and many believe this will prove to be the decisive night in the title race.

Klopp, however, sees things differently and said: ‘First and foremost, (I told them) we should stop behaving like it is a funeral. In my life much worse things happen. If we would have won it wouldn’t increase the possibility we win against Aston Villa, so that is how it is.

‘We will go there, we will prepare and we will try. The only chance we have for things to go our way is to win now. The boys are absolutely in the mood they should be – very disappointed – and that is fine. I would love here to sit here and say: “Yes! City will drop points!” We will see what happens.

‘My problem in this moment is not City against Newcastle. It is that we play Tuesday against Aston Villa, which is tough. We have one point more than before – good! – and from 1-0 down, it is massively better but it was not exactly what we want. We have to deal with it and we will.’

It was an absorbing game and Tottenham limited the Champions League finalists to just three shots on target. Conte had his players supremely well drilled but their intention to frustrate Liverpool from the off irked