You can tell Jürgen Klopp only has three games left. The Liverpool boss cut a relaxed and indeed unshackled figure ahead of his penultimate Anfield match, happily taking aim at the fixture scheduling and the warped priorities of broadcasters.

As it happens, Klopp has had some rare preparation time for the clash against Spurs. He won't be thrilled about the reason why — Liverpool could have been playing a Europa League semi-final last night — but the fixture does now represent a chance to hit the reset button after a labored run of performances and results that have torched this season's ambitions.

By contrast, Tottenham played on Thursday, and will be forced to go again amid its own poor run of form. It will need to find a way of arresting its slide if it wants to hold on to its Europa League spot, never mind make a late push for the final Champions League berth.

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The latest defeat for Spurs mathematically confirmed Liverpool's return to the Champions League, while the title is clearly as good as gone, so there's more at stake for the London visitors. But if the Reds can play with the same freedom Klopp exhibited in the press conference, there's a good chance they could march to victory.

This would be a much-needed mood-booster. It has been hard to pivot seamlessly from hopes of a treble to simply making the most of Klopp's last few matches, with the spat between the manager and Mohamed Salah souring the tone still further in the last outing, but it would be a shame to end this incredible era on a low note.

However, Chris Sutton thinks Liverpool's woes are only going to get worse. Writing his column for the BBC, he has boldly predicted a 3-2 win for Tottenham, anticipating a deepening crisis at Anfield.

"Probably no-one fancies Spurs to come out on top, other than me, but that's what I think will happen, with the wheels coming off for Klopp properly this time," he wrote. He's up against Kings of Leon drummer Nathan Followill this week, who predicted an even higher-scoring affair, with Liverpool coming out on top of a 4-3 thriller.

Sutton also reflected on the Salah incident. He wondered whether or not the Egyptian would start against Spurs:

"Liverpool are not in great form and the incident with Mohamed Salah has not helped. I hope he apologized to Klopp for the way he behaved on the touchline last week.

"Salah is a great player but he is no different to everyone else in the squad in that, if he doesn't perform well, I am afraid he is droppable. It is going to be very interesting to see whether Salah starts this game, which should be an absolute cracker."

Liverpool.com says: There's no doubt that Salah should have apologized to Klopp. But at the same time, it was a tense moment in the heat of the game, and it's just unfortunate that it was broadcast to millions. It doesn't need to be blown out of proportion.

You'd imagine that Salah will start against Spurs. However, Sutton is also right in saying that he is not undroppable, and always needs to merit his spot. Arne Slot will soon be inheriting that delicate situation.