Virgil van Dijk still hasn't lost a Premier League game at Anfield since joining Liverpool. Yes, you read that right. The Dutch center-back was instrumental once again for the Reds as they secured three important points in Sunday's clash with Man City at home.
Liverpool's performance in the afternoon will arguably go down as one of the best-ever under Jurgen Klopp, taking into account how the managed the game to eventually come out on top. The Reds went into the afternoon's affair seated in 11th position on the league log with only 10 points to show for. However, they were not put off by their struggles, building a great wall of resilience and hitting Man City where it hurts the most when they least expected.
After all the thrills and spills that saw Phil Foden's momentary opener being overturned by VAR and Jurgen Klopp seeing a red card for misdemeanour on the touchline, it was Mohamed Salah who emerged s the hero for Liverpool. While Erling Haaland uncharacteristically struggled to find his goalscoring boots, the Egyptian raced onto Alisson's clearance before capitalising on Joao Cancelo's slip up to finally beat Ederson with a composed finish in the 76th minute. Earlier, the attacker had seen a 1v1 attempt dispelled by the Brazilian shot-stopper and was minutes away from being met with the criticism from the Anfield faithful.
100 - Mo Salah has become only the second player in @premierleague history to score 100+ left-footed goals, after Robbie Fowler (105). Wand. pic.twitter.com/giCYYW1UoM
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) October 16, 2022
In hindsight, the game's outcome meant that Virgil van Dijk has now played 69 Premier League games since joining Liverpool in January 2018 and is yet to taste defeat at Anfield. The Reds have mangaed 58 wins and 11 draws within the period.
The result also meant that for the first time this season Man City have been beaten, with the Citizens now four points adrift league leaders Arsenal. The latter won against Leeds on Sunday and have so far accumulated 27 points from a possible 30.
