Virgil van Dijk pays price for Liverpool’s wild celebrations after late win over Fulham

Alexis Mac Allister produced an outrageous 25-yard strike to make it 2-1 – scoring his first goal for Liverpool – but Kenny Tete found the net to level the game at half-time. Fulham then took a shock lead when Bobby De Cordova-Reid’s header beat Caoimhin Kelleher with just 10 minutes of normal time remaining.

Yet two goals in two minutes from Wataru Endo and Alexander-Arnold secured the points for Jurgen Klopp’s side. Matchwinner Alexander-Arnold spoke to the media after the game’s remarkable conclusion to reveal Van Dijk’s minor injury.

“I don’t even know if I can sum it (the game) up in one word, delighted really,” Alexander-Arnold told Liverpool’s website at full-time. “We needed the three points with Arsenal getting the result, we needed to stay in touching distance.

“At this time of year, the games come thick and fast, if you can pick up momentum in the Christmas and January period and come out with wins going into February and March… this isn’t the right time to drop points.”

Alexander-Arnold admitted Liverpool were “sloppy” to concede three times at home but insists luck wasn’t involved in Fulham’s goals or their comeback. He then discussed the chaotic scenes at Anfield that followed his second goal.

Alexander-Arnold said: “I’ve got a big cut on my knee (from a previous game) so I didn’t want to risk reopening that with a knee slide so I thought I had to do something. You can see the emotion in it, how much it meant to the team and the fans.”

Although Alexander-Arnold didn’t do a knee slide, Van Dijk did. He added: “He’s (Van Dijk) got cuts on his knees because it’s the first time he’s done a knee slide for someone like him who is calm and composed to knee slide shows how much it meant to the team.