Leo Messi is invoked only in extreme circumstances. Comparisons are usually odious. But there was no denying Mo Salah’s right to place his second goal against Spurs alongside the brilliance in tight spaces of Barcelona’s master of escapology.

The goal Salah scored in added time of a game decided by impromptu refereeing reviews would have sent Liverpool’s fans home feeling they had seen a thing of beauty. The joy, though, didn’t last. Moments after Salah had moved to 21 Premier League goals for the season – an extraordinary return for a so-called winger – Kane secured his 100th in England’s top division with a penalty that wasn’t, but then was, after Edward Smart, the assistant referee, had imparted his own wisdom to Jon Moss, the chief arbiter.

Salah’s brief taste of glory deserved a bit longer in the limelight. Collecting the ball on the right side of the Tottenham penalty box, Liverpool’s £37 million buy from Roma started using his feet as pinball flippers as he jinked through and round four defenders, who were so bamboozled they started shifting in the wrong directions as Salah surged through.

Conventional logic was telling them to expect particular movements from Liverpool’s top scorer. In such moments, however, the best players are improvising madly, and there was something of Messi’s unpredictability in the way Salah slithered through to squeeze a shot past Hugo Lloris from a tight angle.