Garth Crooks suggests what he’s now detecting from Tottenham; praises Hugo Lloris’ display against Liverpool

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Tottenham Hotspur rounded off a fantastic week by beating Liverpool 4-1 in the Premier League.

Garth Crooks has told BBC Sport that he is starting to detect that Tottenham’s squad are no longer fazed by the prospect of playing at Wembley, and heaped praise on Hugo Lloris after his performance in their 4-1 win over Liverpool on Sunday.

Mauricio Pochettino’s men were looking to turn an encouraging week – following their 1-1 draw away at Real Madrid in the Champions League – into a fantastic one as the Reds visited their temporary home.

And they certainly did that. A stunning performance saw Spurs pick up a 4-1 win to move level on points with Manchester United on a day when the new attendance record in the Premier League was set, and Crooks suggested that any talk of a Wembley hoodoo can now be quashed.

“What I am seeing is a Tottenham team that are really starting to grow. Playing in the Champions League against teams like Real Madrid will certainly help and I also detect that Wembley is no longer the formidable place it used to be for this particular group of players,” he told BBC Sport.

Lloris was excellent when required in the win over Bournemouth last weekend and produced some wonderful saves against Madrid, and he produced another stunning stop to deny Philippe Coutinho during the second-half, pushing the Brazilian’s brilliant effort onto the woodwork.

And Crooks admitted that it was a rare disappointment on a brilliant day for Tottenham that the Frenchman was not able to reflect upon a clean sheet due to Mohamed Salah’s goal in the first-half.

“The France international was superb in midweek against Real Madrid and seemed to enjoy repeating the performance against the Reds, showing superb reflexes to tip Coutinho’s shot on to the bar to preserve Spurs’ 4-1 lead. His performance was so good it was a shame Tottenham conceded,” he added.

Though Liverpool’s defensive frailties will take many of the headlines from the game, Spurs undoubtedly deserve a lot of credit for making them pay in such emphatic fashion.

And with Lloris is such fine form at the other end of the pitch, it appears that talk that the title race is already only between the two Manchester clubs is extremely premature.