Jose Mourinho said Tottenham must learn to kill games off if they are to win a first league title in 60 years after Roberto Firmino's late winner earned Liverpool a 2-1 win over his side yesterday HK time.
The Brazilian's towering header ended an 11-game unbeaten league run for Mourinho's men and opened up a three-point lead for the defending champions at the top of the Premier League table.
Liverpool enjoyed 76 percent possession and had 11 shots on target to Tottenham's two, but Mourinho believed Spurs would have deserved a win had they taken their chances early in the second half.
Steven Bergwijn hit the post and Harry Kane uncharacteristically headed over a huge opportunity.
"We were so close to a win, not so close to a draw," said Mourinho, who exchanged words with Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp at full-time.
"A draw would be a bad result in relation to the performance, so you can imagine how we feel with defeat. We have to score the second, third goal, we have to score to kill the game.
Elsewhere in the Premier League, third-placed Southampton failed to build on a lead as Arsenal scored just a third goal in their last nine games.
Fifth-placed Everton won 2-0 at fourth-placed Leicester thanks to goals from Richarlison and Mason Holgate.
Leeds won a seven-goal thriller against Newcastle 5-2.
Fulham moved out of the relegation zone after a 0-0 draw with Brighton at Craven Cottage.
West Ham's Sebastien Haller equalized with a superb overhead kick in a 1-1 draw against Crystal Palace, whose Christian Benteke was sent off.
In Germany, Robert Lewandowski passed 250 Bundesliga goals with both goals in Bayern Munich's 2-1 home win over Wolfsburg to keep the European champions in touch with German league leaders Bayer Leverkusen.
He will find out after presstime here whether he is FIFA's player of the year.
Leverkusen, who host Bayern tomorrow, remain first - a point ahead of Munich - after a 4-0 romp away to Cologne.
Things remain tight at the top as third-placed RB Leipzig stayed level on 28 points with Bayern with a 1-0 win at Hoffenheim.
In Italy, a Romelu Lukaku penalty was enough to give Inter Milan a 1-0 win against 10-man Napoli at San Siro and move the hosts within a point of Serie A leaders AC Milan, who drew 2-2 away to Genoa.
Juventus is third, four points below Milan after drawing 1-1 against Atalanta in a match where Cristiano Ronaldo had a tame penalty attempt saved.
In France, Lille kept their Ligue 1 lead with a 2-0 victory at bottom side Dijon as champions Paris St Germain stayed hot on the heels with goals by a blue-haired Kylian Mbappe and Moise Kean at home against 10-man Lorient.
PSG are also one point ahead of third-placed Olympique Lyonnais after they conceded a last-gasp goal in a 2-2 home draw against Stade Brestois
In Spain, Barcelona reignited their La Liga title push when they came back from a goal down to defeat Real Sociedad 2-1, with goal scorer Jordi Alba claiming it was the team's "best game of the season."
That saw Sociedad replaced by Atletico Madrid in the top spot.
Roberto Firmino heads in the winner before peeling away to celebrate with teammates as, right, Jose Mourinho argues with Jurgen Klopp.Bottom: Kylian Mbappe.
