Liverpool have not given up hope of retaining their Premier League crown, says Virgil van Dijk.
The Reds were beaten 3-0 by Manchester City on Sunday, leaving Arne Slot’s side in eighth place in the table heading into the international break.
Liverpool have now lost four away games in a row in the Premier League for the first time since April 2012 under Kenny Dalglish (four).
Those four defeats in a row are now more than the Reds suffered in their first 21 away games under Slot combined (W13 D5 L3).
Liverpool are eight points behind leaders Arsenal and according to the Opta supercomputer their chances of winning the title have now fallen to 7%, but Van Dijk insisted they will not give up in the title race.
“The reality is that we lost 3-0 and that is a big blow,” said Van Dijk.
“We’re not going to give up at all. We’re in November and we’re ready for a long season and a big fight.”
After missing an early penalty, Erling Haaland opened the scoring before Nico Gonzalez made it 2-0 with a goal that took a deflection off Van Dijk.
Liverpool were behind by more than two goals at half-time of a Premier League match for the second time (previously against Fulham in April) under Slot, while it was the first time they had been behind by more than three goals at any point in a league match since the Dutchman took charge.
Jeremy Doku’s stunner took control of Liverpool in the second half, although things might have turned out differently if a Van Dijk goal had been allowed to stand in the first half.
Van Dijk thought he had made it 1-1 when he headed in from Mohamed Salah’s corner, but it was disallowed because Andy Robertson was in an offside position for Gianluigi Donnarumma.
However, Wayne Rooney, who has been involved in a war of words with Van Dijk in recent weeks, believes it was the wrong decision to disallow the goal.
“I don’t think it affected everything [Robertson impacting Donnarumma]when you look at it,” said Manchester United record scorer Rooney on BBC Sport’s Match of the Day.
“Robertson is in an offside position but Van Dijk has a good movement, a very good header and Donnarumma can see the ball. We know he can see the ball all the way and Robertson is on the side of him.
“Donnarumma is stretched out, he has a full dive, there is no influence from Robertson on that goal for me.”
#Van #Dijk #Liverpool #give #Premier #League #title #battle #Football #News