West Ham United striker Michail Antonio says he’d ‘be fuming’ if he lost a record like Virgil van Dijk did this week. The Liverpool star will have felt it.
Liverpool lost to Leeds United at the weekend and with it went one of the most impressive records in the Premier League. That was Virgil van Dijk‘s first defeat at Anfield with the Reds – an amazing feat.
Van Dijk joined Liverpool in January 2018, meaning he was coming up on five years without a defeat at home. Five years. He fell just over two months short of that mark.
And let’s be honest, four years and 10 months is still worth calling ‘crazy’. That’s how Michail Antonio sees it as he talked about the record on the Footballer’s Football Podcast.
“Virgil lost his first game at home after three years,” said Antonio. “Three years? Four years? Something crazy.
“I would be fuming! Obviously, there was always going to be a time when it happened but I would be fuming. I’d be like ‘why didn’t I leave last summer?!'”
Virgil van Dijk loses record
We imagine he was fuming. Especially as Liverpool lost the game to a cheap goal very late on. They should have at least seen out the draw. They really should have won it.
It does sum up just how impressive it was that Antonio considered it crazy despite being nearly two years off the actual figure. It’s just an unreal span of games.
Van Dijk has been so unbelievably good at Liverpool that the stat isn’t too surprising, either. He transformed the side from one that was easy to get at to one that showed absolute dominance in the Premier League. As shown by the fact Liverpool did lose some home games when he was injured in 2021.
Well, no better time than right now to start trying to break the record. Here’s to reaching the five-year mark next time.
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