Accusations fly as Liverpool escape with three points

Tottenham 2

Spurs boss Glenn Hoddle revealed that Houllier verbally attacked Taricco in the tunnel at half-time and expressed his disapproval of his opposite number's behaviour.

Argentinian Taricco had a running battle with Diouf, who was fined two weeks' wages by Liverpool for spitting at fans during the club's 1-1 draw against Celtic at Parkhead in the UEFA Cup on Thursday.

Houllier was so angry at what he believed were Taricco's attempts to wind up the Senegal international that after 32 minutes he left the dugout and walked across to Tottenham assistant manager John Gorman on the touchline to complain.

"I got a bit angry because in the first half whether it was on purpose or not Taricco looked as if he wanted to have him sent off, but fortunately the referee spotted it," said the Liverpool manager.

"I thought it was not a nice thing for a fellow footballer to do and that is why I had a word and asked them to do something at half-time.

"I have never had one of my players try to get another sent off and after what happened at Celtic it was easy to pick on him. The crowd were on his back but he silenced them himself because he is a talented player.

"He has to expect that but he is mentally strong like Eric Cantona was - and he can shut that out."

However, Hoddle hit back at Houllier's accusations and said: "That is absolute rubbish and I don't know where he is coming from. We never even spoke about Diouf so I don't know why he is accusing anyone.

"For him to attack our player in the tunnel verbally, I don't think that is on. I didn't see anything wrong and we didn't even mention him in our team meeting before, so if he thinks we tried to provoke the situation he is wrong.

"The crowd gave him some stick but I think everyone knew that was going to happen. But there is no truth in what Gerard is saying whatsoever, Tano (Taricco) just got on with his game, and I don't know what angle he is coming from to be honest."

Ironically it was Taricco who created a major shock when he scored his first ever goal for the club in 112 appearances to give Spurs the lead in the 48th minute, although he needed a huge helping hand from goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek who allowed his speculative long-range drive to squirm under his body.

But Houllier was able to enjoy his first ever win at Spurs thanks to goals from Michael Owen (50), Emile Heskey (72) and man-of-the-match Steven Gerrard (81), although Teddy Sheringham ensured a rousing finale by pulling back a goal with four minutes remaining.

"Jerzy told me the trajectory of the ball surprised him, but maybe his mistake woke them up because it looked as if the team wanted to respond and help him out," said Houllier. Hoddle had another complaint, that Heskey's goal which gave Liverpool the lead should have been ruled out.

He added: "Heskey's goal was offside. I thought that from the bench and I watched it on the video straight away and he was offside, so that went against us, but that's life and you have to get on with it."

TOTTENHAM: Keller, Carr, Thatcher, King, Taricco (Freund 69), Davies, Poyet, Bunjevcevic, Etherington, Sheringham, Doherty (Slabber 79).

LIVERPOOL: Dudek, Carragher, Hyypia, Traore, Riise, Diouf, Hamann (Diao 88), Gerrard, Murphy, Heskey, Owen.

Referee: U Rennie (S Yorkshire).