Liverpool chief makes defiant Premier League title vow after losing ground on Manchester City against Chelsea

Assistant manager Pep Lijnders has vowed that Liverpool are not out of the Premier League title race despite losing more ground on Manchester City.

The Reds were held to a 2-2 draw with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.

And after throwing away a two-goal lead, Liverpool now find themselves third and 11 points behind Man City just after the halfway stage of the season.

City are now heavy 1/12 favourites with the bookmakers to retain their crown, having fought from behind to beat Arsenal 2-1 on Saturday.

However, Liverpool do have a game in hand and Lijnders - who took charge against Chelsea due to Jurgen Klopp isolating after testing positive for coronavirus - is adamant they won’t give up.

He said: “It’s never boring with us. We never look at others. A title race is only decided on the last matchday and there are so many points to collect.

“We have this difficult situation and you never know if the opposition will get a difficult situation. We have to focus on ourselves, that’s how we always did it, that’s how we got into the position we are, that’s how our team developed, how our team is in this moment in time.

“We only focus on the next game to make it a final and give everything we have and with this we become better.

“With this we became champions, we won the Champions League and we won the other two cups, so this is what we have to keep doing.

“Again, a big compliment to our team because if we keep this fighting spirit up and we play a little bit better, then we have a big chance as well in the next games.”

Van Dijk on what went wrong

Liverpool raced into a two-goal lead through goals from Sadio Mane - his first in 10 games - and Mo Salah.

But Matteo Kovacic’s sumptuous volley and Christian Pulisic’s first-half stoppage-time finish got the home side level.

Both sides had chances in the second period but a point apiece was a fair result.

Speaking to Sky Sports, Virgil van Dijk admitted the Reds shouldn’t have allowed their advantage to slip.

He said: “Obviously, if you are 2-0 up, you don’t want to concede that close to half-time and give them the momentum to get back into the game.

“Unfortunately, it happened. A fantastic strike [by Kovacic], you have to give him credit for that. And obviously that gives them, like I said already, momentum.

“They scored the second goal with a good feeling into the break. Obviously we tried not to panic, created fantastic moments still in the second half, even when we were at times under pressure.

“I think for the outside world it was quite a good game to watch, but we came here for three points and unfortunately we didn’t get it.”