Timber! But Gakpo won't fall in show of Dutch courage

FOR wildly contrasting reasons, this has been a summer unlike any other for Liverpool.

- By IAN DOYLE

But having helped negotiate both a difficult preseason and testing start to the campaign, Virgil van Dijk knows the hard work is only just beginning.

“Nine points out of three games going into the international break is obviously a big thing for us,” he says.

“It’s only three games in, everyone has to fight for each other, stay fit, and stay in shape - then start the chaos.”

If chaos was an apt word to describe Liverpool's first two Premier League games of the season - a 4-2 rollercoaster win against Bournemouth followed by a dramatic 3-2 triumph at Newcastle United - it most certainly didn’t apply to Sunday’s tense, often tedious encounter against Arsenal at Anfield that ultimately went the way of the home side.

Regardless, those fixtures were hardly conducive to a new-look Liverpool easing their way into the start of the campaign and the defence of the championship won in convincing fashion last term.

It didn’t help that the Reds defence, having conceded twice in the Community Shield loss to Crystal Palace, continued to prove worryingly leaky until the weekend when they secured only their third clean sheet in their last 16 competitive matches, a run that stretches back to the Champions League 1-0 win at Paris Saint-Germain in early March.

Despite being the only Premier League team to win their opening three games, the scrutiny on Arne Slot’s side is part and parcel of being champions.

With the Reds having not successfully defended a trophy of any kind since 1984, there is a clear niche that could be achieved.

“Yeah, the noise is always there,” says Van Dijk. “We know where we have to improve and can improve, and we worked very hard on it this summer and also last week.

“Against Newcastle there were a lot of set-pieces, and (against Arsenal) there were a lot of set-pieces.