Virgil van Dijk rises to occasion as Liverpool end Sunderland record

Arne Slot does not believe his job security hinges on Liverpool securing Champions League qualification this spring but the Dutchman would much prefer not to put that particular notion to the test.

On this evidence there seems a decent chance last season’s title winning manager will not have to. In finally ending Sunderland’s proud unbeaten home record in the Premier League, sixth placed Liverpool left themselves only three points adrift Manchester United and two behind Chelsea.

Régis Le Bris’s intelligent and well organised side did not surrender lightly but, with the excellent Florian Wirtz continuing to go from strength to strength in the No 10 role, Liverpool looked like champions and deserved to edge a match decided by Virgil van Dijk’s header from Mo Salah’s second-half corner.

The only downside for Slot was the nasty looking ankle injury sustained by his stand-in right-back, Wataru Endo. Liverpool’s manager said it “did not look good” and he expects Endo to be “out for a long, long, time. It’s a serious one but how serious we don’t know. It will be assessed tomorrow.”

That cloud apart, his mood was distinctly upbeat. “Sunderland are a good team with a good manager and it’s difficult to play against them,” he said. “But we controlled the second ball really well and from that we played some really good football. We were the better team. The mentality was excellent.”

Le Bris acknowledged Sunderland had “clearly felt Liverpool’s quality”. As he put it: “If you fix one problem against them, you find you have to manage another. It wasn’t easy for them to win here. We showed character and identity. We showed composure and we were brave. We tried but it wasn’t enough. We faced a monster. Liverpool are composed and they have this ability to combine in tight spaces.”

Although Slot’s side dominated possession it initially foundered in the face of a meticulously organised Sunderland defence. Then, with around 30 minutes on the clock, Wirtz met a pass from the influential, apparently renascent, Alex Mac Allister’s pass, took a steadying touch and decided to try his luck from the edge of the area.

While Robin Roefs did well to turn that one around a post, Sunderland’s goalkeeper was subsequently relieved to see a Wirtz shot rebound off the base of an upright after Andy Robertson’s cross bisected Le Bris’s backline.

With Wirtz in increasingly catalytic mood as he assumed centre stage and Salah, sporadically ruffling Reinildo, Le Bris had reason to look more than a little anxious at times. Yet his team, too, had their moments. All kaleidoscopic positional interchanging going forward, Sunderland were being fully stretched yet remained very much in the game.

It was the sort of match where they particularly missed their injured captain Granit Xhaka. Enzo Le Fée had dropped back alongside Noah Sadiki to fill Xhaka’s place at the base of ­midfield and his superior reading of the game and off-the-ball positioning ensured his side were able to make a series of important interceptions as Wirtz demonstrated precisely why Slot was so very keen to sign him last summer.

Sunderland improved at the start of the second half but, still, they barely threatened Alisson’s goal and with the impressive Ibrahima Konaté winning his physical tussle with Brian Brobbey, a 25-yard off-target shot from Trai Hume was about the closest they came to scoring.

Tellingly, once Liverpool began weathering a home storm briefly as intense as the torrential rain that had cascaded down on Wearside all day it took a vital block from Dan Ballard to deny Wirtz.

A visiting goal was coming though. It arrived when Salah swung an excellent corner towards the far post and Van Dijk’s equally impressive header was helped on its inevitable trajectory into the back of the net by Habib Diarra.

A delay ensued as Endo, deputising for the suspended Dominik ­Szoboszlai and putting in a very decent shift, received lengthy treatment – and pain relief – on the pitch after turning an ankle in evidently agonising fashion. Eventually the Japan international was carried off on a stretcher and replaced by Joe Gomez.

It was a horrible way for Endo’s first Premier League start of the season to end but this most sodden of midwinter nights may yet come to be seen as a watershed in Liverpool’s hitherto troubled season.

With the crushing disappointment of last Sunday’s defeat against Manchester City temporarily forgotten, almost anything suddenly seemed possible for Wirtz and friends.