Van Dijk: Too early for Liverpool to think about title

Virgil van Dijk said it is too early for Liverpool to be thinking about the Premier League title, insisting their five-point lead over reigning champions Manchester City means nothing.

Liverpool are five points clear atop the table after seven matches as the Reds eye their first league trophy since 1990.

Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool – who won the 2018-19 Champions League – also enjoyed an advantage at the Premier League summit last season before their seven-point lead was overhauled by City in a nail-biting title race.

And after Saturday's 1-0 victory at Sheffield United made it seven successive wins to start the season, Liverpool star Van Dijk said: "It doesn't mean anything [the five-point lead]. It's far too early. We're almost in October and the busy period will come.

"There are still so many games left and the only thing we focus on is the game ahead of us. We don't want to look at the others because there's no point doing that.

"Everyone realises that as well because last season we saw how it turned quickly. We just want to focus on the game ahead of us."

Liverpool have not lost away in the Premier League since January's defeat to City – a run of 12 matches – while the Reds are unbeaten at Anfield since April 2017.

"It's the media who love statistics. The reality is we have nothing at the moment. We want to continue to do well and there's still plenty of room for improvement," added Van Dijk, whose Liverpool host Salzburg in the Champions League on Wednesday.

"We have to be confident; you have to think you're going to win every game otherwise you might as well stay at home. We have the quality, we have the players.

"We'll take this, recover and then prepare for Salzburg and that will be a tough game as well. We have to win every game, that's how it is."