Liverpool break Hotspur jinx

LONDON: Steven Gerrard set up two goals and scored the winner as Liverpool beat Tottenham 3-2 in the Premier Football League yesterday, their first win at White Hart Lane in seven years.

 Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier kept faith with the team which drew 1-1 at Celtic in the UEFA Cup on Thursday. That meant Senegalese striker El Hadji Diouf, who faces an UEFA and police inquiry for allegedly spitting at a fan during that match, kept his place. Also yesterday, Robbie Fowler scored his first Manchester City goal as the Blues beat Birmingham 1-0. A goalkeeping blunder from Liverpool’s Jerzy Dudek helped Tottenham’s Argentine defender Mauricio Taricco score his first goal for Spurs in the 49th minute. Taricco hit a low drive from 25 yards (metres) which Dudek dropped and the ball dribbled over the line.

Two minutes later, Michael Owen scored his 21st goal of the season to equalise from a Gerrard cross. Emile Heskey, who overcame a hamstring injury to play, headed Liverpool’s second in the 72nd minute, from Gerrard’s accurate pass. Gerrard made it 3-1 ten minutes later, taking the ball against the run of play to score 20 yards (metres) past Tottenham ’keeper Kasey Keller. Spurs scored a consolation goal three minutes from time through Teddy Sheringham.

In Manchester, Fowler’s 72nd minute strike, from an Ali Benarbia curling cross, was his first for City since he moved from Leeds on January 30. City’s Niclas Jensen was sent off in the 79th minute for two yellow cards. Fowler, 27, moved to Leeds from Liverpool in November 2001 but never made an impact and was often slowed by injuries. He has missed much of this season with injury and scored two goals for Leeds. Birmingham striker Robbie Savage picked up his 10th yellow card of the season, for taking a free kick too quickly, giving him an automatic two match ban.