'Very nice' - Van Dijk on late double against Watford

Virgil van Dijk was pleased to add the flourish of two late goals to a handsome 5-0 victory for Liverpool over Watford on Wednesday night.

The centre-back doubled his tally for the club in the space of three minutes in the final stages of the Premier League encounter at Anfield, following Sadio Mane’s first-half brace and Divock Origi’s strike.

“It was a great performance overall, we dominated and had a lot of great possession,” Van Dijk told Sky Sports post-match.

“Especially in the first half, we played very well. They couldn’t really find a solution for our press. We scored some great goals and obviously it was very nice to be on the scoresheet.”

The win maintained the Reds’ position as the Premier League’s leaders, with the gap still one point to Manchester City, who claimed a 1-0 success against West Ham United.

Van Dijk insisted the Liverpool players are blocking out the fervent discussion about the title race, with their concentration simply on producing this kind of performance level for the remainder of the campaign.

“Everyone has their opinion on the race,” said the Dutchman.

“For us, it’s just a case of focusing on the game ahead of us and it was Watford. We prepared it very well, even if [the preparation] was very short.

“We were all ready for it and up for it – we wanted to show our fans and ourselves we play like this the whole season. We have to enjoy it. Now it’s time to recover and make sure we’re ready for the weekend.”

He added: “I’m not worried about anything apart from what’s [going on] in the dressing room and the guys that have influence on our performance. Other than that, I’m just enjoying every bit of it.”

The No.4 also paid tribute to Trent Alexander-Arnold, whose free-kick delivery for the first of Van Dijk’s headed double brought up a hat-trick of assists for the full-back in the game.

“His crossing and delivery is top-class, he has been showing it throughout the season,” he said. “To get three assists is special.”

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