Virgil van Dijk: ‘Liverpool is the most beautiful club in the world – we deserve this’

Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk hailed his side as the “truly deserved” champions of England after they secured the Premier League title with four games to spare.

A 5-1 victory over Tottenham at Anfield saw the Reds crowned English champions for the 20th time, equalling Manchester United’s record.

“It’s special and it’s something that we don’t take for granted. It’s amazing,” Van Dijk told Sky Sports as he and his team-mates celebrated on the pitch.

“A lot of emotions before the game, during the whole week, but we got the job done and we (are) truly deserved champions of England.

“(Liverpool is) the most beautiful club in the world and I think we deserve all of this. Let’s enjoy the next couple of weeks and let it sink in.”

Liverpool’s title triumph is their second in five years and came in Arne Slot’s first season since succeeding Jurgen Klopp in charge.

Slot insisted he had not been concerned when Dominic Solanke gave Spurs an early lead, with Luis Diaz equalising shortly afterwards before Alexis Mac Allister, Cody Gakpo, Mohamed Salah and an own goal from Destiny Udogie sealed a comfortable win.

“It wasn’t ideal but it didn’t take me a long time to trust these players, they always come back, they always find a way to win,” Slot told Sky Sports.

Asked how he had made winning the title appear so easy, Slot added: “That’s not only my job, it’s the job of the players and the staff members standing over there and the work Jurgen (Klopp) and Pepijn (Lijnders) left behind over here.

“The culture of the team, the work rate, the quality was outstanding. We all knew that. We started off really well and it maybe helped a bit that (Manchester City) had a difficult spell, which they hadn’t had in five years.

“When the season started everyone would have been happy if we were in the top four for Champions League again but I don’t think that was fair to our players because they are much better than that and that’s what they have showed this season.”

Salah, whose goal took him into fifth place in the all-time Premier League scorers list with 185 goals, was asked to compare this season’s title victory with the one under Klopp in 2020.

“This is way better, 100 per cent,” he told Sky Sports.

“Without Sadio (Mane), without Jurgen, without Bobby (Firmino) – without everybody it feels more special. We have a different group now, different manager, so to be able to do it again is something special.”

Asked if Slot had made him a better player, Salah joked: “You can see the numbers – it seems so!

“He was very honest. He’s quite tough his personality, but he made our lives easier because you knew immediately what he wanted you to do, which is what we did.”

• READ: Slot sings Klopp’s song and says “there’s no way we were going to lose”

Speaking after his side’s victory over Nottingham Forest in their FA Cup semi-final, Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola praised Liverpool for ending City’s run of four straight league titles.

“First of all, I want to congratulate Liverpool,” Guardiola said. “It is well deserved, a fantastic team, and hopefully next season we can be better.

“This season it couldn’t be possible, so congratulations to Liverpool.”