ReactionVan Dijk: Arsenal defeat tough to take - but we must keep working

The Reds were beaten in north London as Gabriel Martinelli struck alongside a Bukayo Saka brace.

Darwin Nunez and substitute Roberto Firmino twice levelled up the encounter, though Saka’s 76th-minute penalty earned the spoils for the hosts.

Van Dijk gave his reaction to Sky Sports following the defeat – read on for a summary of his post-match thoughts below…

On the defeat at the Emirates…

Very disappointing. Obviously it was a very tough game for both sides. We had good moments, we had bad moments and it got decided by a penalty that from our point of view wasn’t a penalty. It’s gone so quick, I have no idea how it looked in slow motion, but unfortunately we couldn’t get the points to bring with us back to Liverpool.

On how tough the result is to take having battled back twice…

It is tough to take in general conceding goals, but we know that they are in the best moment of their lives and obviously they [only] lost one [game] so far but apart from that they are having a great season. We know it was always going to be tough. I think they had good moments, created good chances at times and it’s hard to lose it by a penalty in my opinion, but it’s the case so we have to deal with that.

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On the number of goals being conceded…

Obviously if you concede goals it’s not a good thing. We try to avoid it; we do everything in our power to not concede because no-one wants to concede. Unfortunately we’ve already conceded too many in my opinion. There are multiple reasons for it, so we try to not do it and work on it each and every day behind the scenes that no-one sees. We try to improve and get back to the level we are supposed to be.

On whether confidence is lacking in the squad…

Confidence is definitely a thing that plays a part. You know, we are all human beings and sometimes you need a bit of confidence in certain moments and also if your confidence is not as high it is not helping in certain situations. As I said before, every human being whatever job, whatever situation, you need a little bit of confidence to perform in the highest level.

If you’re not winning regular like we are used to then confidence is creeping away, but we know that it can turn around like that as well. We know we have to work and we have to work hard. That’s the only thing to do and the only way forward.

On needing to turn results around in the league quickly…

That’s the reality. We can’t change it now. Like I said, the only thing we can do is try to win the next game ahead of us. We know in the league it is going to be quite a tough one but first we have to recover, look at today [and] what we can do better because there will be plenty of moments that we can all do better. [We have to] focus on the Champions League because we have a big job there as well and then we’ll focus on the league again. The games come thick and fast – we just have to be ready.