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MANCHESTER — Virgil van Dijk has refused to give up on Liverpool’s Premier League title hopes despite the reigning champions being swept aside by Manchester City and sitting eight points off the top of the table. MORE — Man City v Liverpool player ratings | Match recap The way they were beaten by City suggests Liverpool are well off the title pace but their captain, who has stood tall and answered question after question about their struggles in recent weeks, has sent out a message to Liverpool’s title rivals: “The season isn’t decided in November.” With almost a third of the season gone, Van Dijk has seen his Liverpool side lose five of their last six in the Premier League as the defending champions have gone from winning five on the bounce to start the season to being way behind leaders Arsenal. MORE — Arne Slot, Pep Guardiola reaction | Full match replay Speaking to reporters in the mixed zone after the humbling 3-0 defeat to Manchester City on Sunday, Van Dijk was asked by NBC Sports about the Premier League table being tight and that all is not lost for Liverpool’s season. “There’s no point to look at the table. That’s it,” Van Dijk smiled. What about the title race? “I don’t think there’s any point, if you lose now the games we lost so far this season, to think about any title at this point,” Van Dijk said. “But I’ve been in the game for quite a long time. The season is not decided in November, December. It’s obviously when it comes to March time, you know, April, when it starts to become very interesting, how it all shapes up there. We want to be there, but there’s a long way to go and a lot of hard work to be put in and we have to stay humble and keep working. That’s the only aim and the only thing that we should focus on.” Van Dijk and Liverpool looked tired in the draining defeat in the rain at Manchester City. You can understand it. They had beaten Aston Villa and Real Madrid in the previous seven days to increase optimism levels, but with injuries and a top-heavy summer recruitment policy they’re rolling out the same players time and time again, especially on the defensive side of the ball with Van Dijk, Ibrahima Konate and Ryan Gravenberch in particular looking spent. Was fatigue at the end of a long week an issue during the defeat at Man City? “No, no, no,” Van Dijk said. “Games are decided by small margins, and today I think it was. And nonetheless, I think City deserved it towards the end to win the game. So that’s not the problem, but I think momentum in-game is very important and could have shifted today to our side a couple of times, but unfortunately it didn’t.” Van Dijk admitted he didn’t think his header in the first half should have been disallowed for offside on Andy Robertson, which would have made it 1-1, and that he was left confused by the VAR decision. But in the end it didn’t make much difference as Liverpool were way off it at Manchester City and it underlined just how much work they have to do to get back to the top.
