After Virgil van Dijk had become involved in a tangle with Andy Robertson, leading to West Ham United’s late equaliser, the Scot screamed his disapproval at the Liverpool captain. Van Dijk, head down and walking away from the scene of the crime, probably knew he might have made a mistake and did not respond.
Not for a couple of minutes anyway. And then he responded in the way he always responds. He responded in the way the best leader in the Premier League always responds. By example, by force of will, by determination.
He responded by heading in a winner that means the engraver can start working on the Premier League trophy as soon as he or she wants. If Mohamed Salah had not put up the numbers he has this season, Van Dijk would be a thoroughly deserving winner of end-of-season individual awards. And in this latest, dramatic Anfield victory, Liverpool fans were given a reminder that the imminent title success has been based on the imperious contributions of three of the grandees of this squad.
Van Dijk, Salah and Alisson.
This was a day when Salah celebrated his new contract, not with one of his truly virtuoso displays but with occasional demonstrations of his very special talent. Unfortunately for young Ollie Scarles, most of those demonstrations came at his expense, including the key moment inside 20 minutes that set up a Liverpool victory that can set the engraver to work on the Premier League trophy.
Salah had already scrambled Scarles’ judgement to such an extent that the 19-year-old tried to intercept a long Ibrahima Konate pass and was left stranded by Salah who sprinted into clear air before rolling across a peach of an assist for Luis Diaz with his left instep. The pass was weighted with such perfection that Diaz would have found it nigh on impossible to miss.
But if that goal involvement – his 45th, a record for a 38-game Premier League season – was a snapshot of how Salah is invaluable to Arne Slot’s team, it was a returning lynchpin of this Liverpool era who ensured the title is in touching distance.
After a three-game absence, Alisson came back and while he was not exactly called on to put in a gruelling shift, he did what elite keepers do for elite teams. He made high-quality saves at crucial moments of a contest that became more evenly-matched as time went on.
He ensured Liverpool went into the break ahead by, first, blocking at the feet of Carlos Soler and then, backtracking, tipping Mohammed Kudus’s clever effort onto the crossbar.
In the second half, as West Ham grew into the game, he again denied Kudus with an equally adept save and then stood tall to foil Jarrod Bowen. There was, though, nothing he could do when the mix-up between Van Dijk and Robertson produced an own goal that gave Graham Potter’s side deserved parity.
But after Van Dijk had headed home Alexis Mac Allister’s corner to restore Liverpool’s lead – and after Slot’s side had held on for seven manic minutes of added time – the keeper and the captain shared a special embrace away from the madding crowd.
For Liverpool supporters, it was not just a day to celebrate Salah’s new contract, it was a day to salute two modern-day giants of the club.
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