[ad_1]
Liverpool could not have wished for a better start to the season, with the 3-0 win over Norwich returning all three points on a day that Virgil van Dijk made his competitive return.
Jurgen Klopp put his players through their paces over the summer and it paid off on the opening day, as while there is much to improve the all-important first win is now on the board.
It makes it four successive wins on the first league matchday for the manager, setting the ideal foundations for what many hope will be a successful season ahead.
Mohamed Salah certainly set down the marker for what we can expect from him with two assists and a goal to his name as he flexed his muscles at Carrow Road.
The other notable story to emerge from the match was the successful competitive return of Van Dijk after 302 days, a comeback that the No. 4 had simply been excited about.
“Excited, very happy obviously to start the game, to get the three points, win 3-0 away, a clean sheet. Obviously, you can’t ask for more,” he told LiverpoolFC.com.
“I wasn’t nervous, I was excited, I wanted to be out there. I wanted to get the game going.
“In my case I just need repetition, to keep doing things: coming across, pushing up, get the ball, change of play, keep the speed, all these things, what I normally do and yeah, these are the moments where you can really improve, so that’s what I tried to do.”
The day also heralded the return of a full-capacity stadium, real football with real noise and it was glorious to see.
And the travelling Kop, back for the first time since February 2020, were “amazing” in the words of James Milner and Sadio Mane:
Meanwhile, for Kostas Tsimikas it was a maiden Premier League start that left him “buzzing” on what was an impressive outing for the left-back:
The “perfect” start was a common theme elsewhere as the Reds took to social media after the win with Trent Alexander-Arnold, Naby Keita, Fabinho and Diogo Jota all in a celebratory mood:
Two of the three goalscorers were also in a buoyant mood as their strikes helped propel Liverpool to victory:
Under a different set of circumstances, but it was a return to the Liverpool shirt for both Van Dijk and Harvey Elliott and it was certainly a memorable one:
After the tough slog that was 2020/21, a return to winning ways at the first time of asking and fans back in grounds already make for a much-improved year ahead.
And now a full Anfield awaits against Burnley on Saturday, a team who lost their opening day match with Brighton despite having taken an early lead.
[ad_2]
Source link
