Sporting Life
Virgil van Dijk in action for Liverpool
Virgil van Dijk in action for Liverpool

Liverpool's Premier League title odds: Virgil van Dijk plays down five-point gap over Man City as Reds shorten for title triumph

By Sporting Life
Football
Mon September 30, 2019 · 5y ago

Virgil van Dijk says it is far too early to start talking about Liverpool's Premier League title chances despite the Reds holding a five-point lead over champions Manchester City.

City remain the odds-on favourites to make it three Premier League titles in a row, but Liverpool's odds have shortened slightly after coming through their test at Bramall Lane, along with City suffering from big defensive injury problems.

Premier League title odds: Man City 5/6 | Liverpool 11/10

Liverpool maintained their 100 percent start to the season with their seventh win making it 16 in a row in the Premier League - just two away from matching City's current record - but with two huge games coming up next against Leicester and Manchester United.

With their fixture list set to get even more congested than usual over Christmas thanks to the FIFA Club World Cup, and having seen a seven-point advantage evaporate last season, Van Dijk insists nobody at Liverpool is even thinking about the title yet.

"It's far too early. We're almost in October and the busy period will come," said Van Dijk.

"There are still so many games left and the only thing we focus on is the game ahead of us. We don't want to look at the others because there's no point doing that.

"Everyone realises that as well because last season we saw how it turned quickly. We just want to focus on the game ahead of us."

Champions League test

Victory at Bramall Lane also extended the club record for successive away wins to eight and they have not lost outside of Anfield in the league since that defeat at the Etihad almost 10 months ago, their best run since 1989.

But attention quickly turns to Wednesday's visit of Red Bull Salzburg as Klopp's side look to register their first Champions League win of the season after defeat in their opening game against Napoli.

"It's the media who love statistics. The reality is we have nothing at the moment. We want to continue to do well and there's still plenty of room for improvement," added Van Dijk.

"We have to be confident; you have to think you're going to win every game otherwise you might as well stay at home. We have the quality, we have the players.

"We'll take this, recover and then prepare for Salzburg and that will be a tough game as well. We have to win every game, that's how it is."

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