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It wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t fun. But Liverpool came away from Selhurst Park with three points and their eight point lead atop the table.
When most people believe that the race for the title could come down to thin margins, every point matters. That’s why a sigh of utter relief was heard around Liverpool fandom when VAR ruled out Tomkins opening goal due to a foul in the run up.
How important was this win?
“Very important and very massive,” according to van Dijk, who put in another impressive performance, despite this being the ninth game in a row where the team has failed to keep a clean sheet.
“Obviously everyone knows how tough it is to come here against a very well organised side after the international break, and we were very happy with the three points.
“If you are prepared to suffer setbacks, because in the games that will happen, it’s about how you react and so far we have been doing that pretty well.
“Obviously we try to minimise the setbacks in the game, we tried to not concede and today they scored the goal. We had opportunities to score a second and it’s how you react, and so far we have been doing pretty well.”
Another great thing about the winning goal was who scored it. Roberto Firmino hasn’t scored for Liverpool since September 22nd, so seeing him bag the winner was great. Hopefully it bodes well for more goals going forward.
Liverpool have one more Champions League group stage game against Napoli to navigate on Wednesday evening before finishing off November against Brighton.