“It goes both ways,” Virgil van Dijk said, as he reflected on his off-the-ball clash with Arsenal’s Kai Havertz in the opening exchanges of Liverpool’s 2-2 draw at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday. It was a point that Van Dijk was keen to apply more broadly, taking in the subject of which team had suffered the most in terms of player unavailability.
“We can keep speaking about them missing players and players going out [during the game] but it’s part of football,” the Liverpool captain said. “I think we also missed certain players.”
With that, Van Dijk stopped abruptly and when he did so, features impassive, hulking frame looming large, it is fair to say he got his message across. He had already told TV reporters that Arsenal “only had two players injured [beforehand] … they played a very, very strong team.”
If the number was actually three, Van Dijk could be forgiven for overlooking Takehiro Tomiyasu and focusing more on Martin Ødegaard and Riccardo Calafiori. Arsenal were also without the suspended William Saliba while Gabriel Magalhães and Jurriën Timber would be forced off.
This was Van Dijk pushing back against the notion of Mikel Arteta’s down-to-the-bare-bones Arsenal digging in for a plucky draw; Liverpool had been without the injured Alisson, Diogo Jota, Harvey Elliott, Federico Chiesa and Conor Bradley. And it was not difficult to pick up on the exasperation.
It was the same with Van Dijk’s view of the Havertz flashpoint. He had pushed his opponent and aimed two kicks at him with his heel, Havertz tumbling over after feeling the second. It was risky from Van Dijk, no great stretch to imagine the referee, Andrew Taylor, being advised by the VAR to make the jog to the pitchside monitor. As it was, Taylor saw it all and gave only a free-kick.
To say that Van Dijk gave the moment short shrift was the understatement of the day. “Yeah well, you know, it’s a physical game,” Van Dijk said. “These things happen. I think if you watch the battles that we have during the games anyway, it goes both ways. That’s part and parcel of the game. That’s it.”
It looked like a case of Van Dijk getting his retaliation in first but if he did not seek to portray himself as an angel, the overarching sentiment was that neither could Arsenal. Everything is not always loaded against them. They cannot have it both ways.
It is five weeks since Arsenal’s stormy 2-2 draw at Manchester City when they were accused of employing the dark arts to hold on to a 2-1 scoreline after they lost Leandro Trossard to a red card – players going to ground with cramp, delaying tactics, anything to break the game’s rhythm. And the issue of how they go about their business is centre stage again, the post-match interview of the Liverpool manager, Arne Slot, seeing to that; the tone of Van Dijk’s comments going into the mix.
Slot saw the Arsenal goalkeeper, David Raya, booked for time-wasting on 66 minutes as the home team led 2-1. And he could not hide his frustration when Timber went down with cramp in the 72nd minute, telling his defender, Ibrahima Konaté, it was a “fucking joke”. Slot was shown the yellow card; he said it was because the fourth official had thought he had directed the comment towards him.
Slot lamented how there were “so many times” that Arsenal players were on the floor. “I don’t blame them for that but it always happened after they had ball possession,” he said. “That took the energy out of the game in my opinion.”
It is worth stating that Timber was not faking. He had not played since suffering a muscle injury against Paris Saint-Germain on 1 October, he was rushed back to face Liverpool and it was clear he was starting to cramp. In his previous action – a long sprint back towards his goal – he was in visible discomfort.
As an aside, is there not an irony to the criticism of Arsenal for their streetwise game management when, for years, they were slated for being soft and naive? People cannot have it both ways, right?
What Van Dijk wanted to talk up was how it was a point gained for Liverpool rather than two dropped. The reasons were numerous and they surely outweighed the idea that once Mohamed Salah had scored the second equaliser on 81 minutes, Arsenal’s patched-up defence was there for the taking.
Liverpool did not play brilliantly and yet they were able to gain control of the second half, having trailed 2-1 at the interval. Slot has brought stability in his classic 4-3-3 with the No 6, the box-to-box No 8 and the No 10 – and it was in evidence at the Emirates. His players believed in their patient, possession-based approach. It is less heavy metal these days but is that a bad thing?
It always feels like a better point when you have fought back twice. When it comes at the home of a direct rival where you have lost the previous two league fixtures, the case is closed.
“People spoke about that if you lose, you will lose the league … they have absolutely no clue in my opinion,” Van Dijk said. “The season is so, so long. The team that sets a very good foundation before December and then goes through December in the best way possible, without any injuries and good results, has a good chance to be top of the league.”
