Milner: History-making Liverpool did not crumble where others would have

Liverpool responded to an early setback against Bournemouth to create top-flight history and vice-captain James Milner believes other teams would have crumbled when falling behind.

The Reds, who followed up their first Premier League loss of the season at Watford last weekend with FA Cup elimination against Chelsea in midweek, triumphed 2-1 at Anfield on Saturday to secure a record 22nd successive home win, surpassing the benchmark set by Bill Shankly's Liverpool side in 1972.

They had to come from behind to break the record, though, with referee Paul Tierney and VAR seeing nothing amiss with Callum Wilson's possible push on Joe Gomez before the Cherries striker tapped home the opener in the ninth minute.

Liverpool reacted positively and Mohamed Salah restored parity on his 100th Premier League outing for the club before Sadio Mane put them in front after 33 minutes.

Bournemouth never looked like getting back into the game, with Jurgen Klopp's men securing a win that leaves them potentially three wins away from a first title in 30 years.

"I don't think any Premier League game is not hard to win, it's a boring thing to say but it's true," Milner told BT Sport.

"Especially when you've had a couple of performances which weren't at our level. Again today we weren't at our best but many teams would've crumbled, a couple of poor results, plenty of things going on outside the ground, people saying this and that.

"Many teams might have crumbled at one down, but we didn't. We kept going, stayed calm and when you've got the boys up front, with how clinical they are you've always got a chance.

"The unbelievable teams that have been here since the start, to be up there with those and have a good run is special, but we want to just keep producing performances, hopefully winning trophies and creating history for this club."

In his sixth Premier League game against Bournemouth, Salah took his tally versus the Cherries to eight.

The Egypt international has 70 goals in the top flight for Liverpool and became their first player to score at least 20 in three consecutive seasons since Michael Owen, who did so from 2000-01 until 2002-03.

Asked about his record against Bournemouth, Salah said: "That's something good, I always love to score and help the team to get points.

"We showed our personality after 1-0 down, we had to react for that and I think we did well.

"We need to keep going for the next three games and the rest of the season."