When Richarlison plays against Liverpool, you can be sure that he’ll get himself into the thick of the action somehow.
The Tottenham Hotspur forward infamously whipped out his pigeon celebration after a stoppage time equaliser at Anfield in April 2023, only for the late Diogo Jota to immediately score the winner at the other end of the pitch, earning him a cheeky social media dig from Jamie Carragher.
The ex-Everton man was summoned from the bench with Spurs trailing 2-0 to Arne Slot’s side this evening with 10 minutes of normal time remaining, and inevitably he was heavily involved.
Within three minutes of his introduction, Richarlison pounced on a loose ball in the Liverpool penalty area after the Reds failed to clear from a corner kick, with the goal setting up what might be lightly described as a grandstand finish in north London.
Richarlison antics trigger Szoboszlai suspension
In ‘celebrating’ his strike, the 28-year-old pushed Hugo Ekitike in the back of the neck with the French striker lying face-down on the ground, before then running to Dominik Szoboszlai and shouting in the Hungarian’s face.
Richarlison grabbed Hugo Ekitike by the neck after scoring for Spurs against Liverpool
Image via Sky Sports
Incredulously, our number 8 was booked by John Brooks, and it was his fifth yellow card in the Premier League this season. It means that he’ll now be suspended for our match against Wolves next Saturday, far from ideal when we’re already deprived of several other key players.
Mo Salah is away at the Africa Cup of Nations. Cody Gakpo, Wataru Endo and Joe Gomez had already been sidelined with injury. Conor Bradley appeared to take a knock shortly before half-time tonight, and Alexander Isak was forced off after being caught by Micky van de Ven in scoring our first goal.
Totally needless and shameful from Richarlison
We know that Richarlison has more than a bit of history with Liverpool – his weird comments about Virgil van Dijk and his childish social media antics after our Champions League final defeat in 2022 are evidence of that.
Even still, his actions immediately after scoring tonight were reprehensible. Why be so antagonistic towards Ekitike and Szoboszlai when you could just run straight back to the centre circle and get on with the game, at a time when the Reds were suddenly reeling?
The Brazil international still managed to get himself booked for having too much to say to Brooks at the full-time whistle (surprise, surprise…), but his provocative actions after scoring have contributed towards our number 8 being suspended next week for a nonexistent offence.
At least Liverpool had the last laugh on Richarlison after coming away with a 2-1 victory to move into the top five of the Premier League for a couple of hours at a minimum.