Trent Alexander Arnold and Virgil Van Dijk
Trent Alexander-Arnold believes hard-fought wins such as Liverpool’s 1-0 triumph over Aston Villa ‘mean a bit more’. The Reds have been in scintillating form, scoring an impressive 45 goals in just 16 Premier League games this season. However, they relied on a second-half penalty, won and converted by Mohamed Salah, finally to break Villa’s resistance at Anfield on Saturday.
Trent Alexander Arnold said: “They set up in a way to frustrate us. They never really pressed us, they wanted us to have the ball, get into their half and then just cut us off and try to counter-attack. It was a frustrating one but these are the ones that probably feel the best. It’s always good to blow teams away with 4-0 or 5-0, but the ones that you really have to work hard for – last week, this week – these are the ones that you know really matter, when you’re kind of expected to draw these games and these could be draws. So those ones where you do find a way to win, it just shows the mentality and it means a bit more too.”
Alexander-Arnold is also revelling in this season’s title race after Manchester City and Chelsea also relied on penalties to seal victories at the weekend.
Trent Alexander Arnold added: “It’s obviously going to be quite tight. It’s exciting. Every time someone mentions it I get a smile on my face. It’s something that we want as players and obviously to run away with it like we did a few years back. But you’ve still got to fight for it. At this point in the season, every team is fighting for something and it’s only going to get tighter I imagine. We’ve just got to make sure in a period like this we win every game we can. This is probably the most important time of the year for us. It’s not quite the run-in, it’s that middle period where the games come thick and fast. And a game or two where you don’t get your wins, you really get punished for that. We’ve been good so far. We need to keep going.”
