Virgil van Dijk fires pressure warning to Liverpool over Premier League title race | OneFootball

Virgil van Dijk has backed his Liverpool teammates to withstand the pressure that comes with setting the pace in a Premier League title race.

The Reds currently boast a seven-point advantage over second-placed Arsenal with 13 games to go - a lead they secured after holding on to a nervy 2-1 victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers at the weekend.

While Van Dijk accepted the rising anxiety, towards which the last-minute equaliser against Everton will definitely have contributed, is a natural consequence to being out in front, he assured fans the squad is strong enough to get the job done.

"We are all human beings and I totally understand anxiety or nervousness can kick in," he reflected. "I said it weeks ago, we just have to buckle up, enjoy the ride. There will be a lot of twists and turns.

"If you're not ready for it, it will be a difficult couple of months for you but I feel like we as a team are ready for it. We will give it everything we've got and we will see in 13 games if that is enough."

Van Dijk lifted the title in 2020 / PHIL NOBLE/GettyImages

Van Dijk was part of the side which came out on top in the 2019/20 title race, but that came 12 months after Liverpool gave up a significant lead for Manchester City to secure the trophy.

With more experience of these situations than most in the squad, Van Dijk offered some words of wisdom to his teammates.

"I don't know how others would think, I can only say what I think and what I tell the boys to do because I've been through this whole situation and come up short as well twice," he said. "We have to put all our energy in only ourselves and that is hard enough already - you saw how Wolves made it difficult for us and on Wednesday it will be very difficult again.

"If you focus on other things or look at others it is only going to backfire so we keep going. Certain players in our team might watch other teams but it is not going to help you. I think that was also the mentality the season we won it: we kept going, kept going and we found a way."