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Virgil van Dijk says he will continue to “protect” Liverpool team-mate Mohamed Salah from any unfair criticism.

The Dutch defender was involved in a bust-up with Arsenal's Sokratis as the players left the field at half-time at Anfield on Saturday.

Van Dijk stepped in after the Gunners centre-back accused Salah of diving to earn the penalty which helped Liverpool establish a dominant 4-1 lead at the interval.

“I saw that he went to Mo (Salah) and was saying that he dived. He was attacking him a bit, but I wanted to say he didn’t dive,” Van Dijk said.

“Obviously everyone came around us and it looked like we were fighting or something but we weren’t. I just wanted to talk to him. But that happens in football and we move on.

“I’m protecting my teammates and that’s normal, that’s how everyone should react and that’s what we all need to do, to back each other. That’s what I definitely do.”

Liverpool will go into Thursday's crunch clash with title rivals Manchester City at the Etihad with a seven-point lead at the top of the Premier League.

(Image: BT Sport)

They go into 2019 on the back of a 20-game unbeaten league run but Van Dijk insists they need to stay grounded.

“We can now focus on the City game. Before we didn’t do that. Arsenal had been playing pretty well this season so we had to stay focused on them, not think about City,” he said.

"We have finished 2018 now pretty well and hopefully we can keep that going.

"City is a game that we want to win. It will be very hard, very tough, but for them as well.

"It’s going be a good match, but it is not a decisive game or something like that. We are not going to treat it different to any other. We will be prepared for a very tough game.

(Image: GLYN KIRK/AFP/Getty Images)

“Confidence is definitely here, but it can change over a couple of games. We won’t get carried away. We need to keep doing what we have been doing.

“There will be setbacks, as there always is in life, but it’s how you react and so far we have been doing pretty well. There are things to improve, but we are top of the league, still in the Champions League, and we are doing well, just need to keep going.”

The League Cup tie with Chelsea in September is the only one of Liverpool's 27 games this season that Van Dijk hasn't started but he's adamant he's not feeling fatigued.

“I don’t need to rest. Everyone wants to play every game,” he said.

“It’s not like you want to sit on the bench or be in the stand. I just go with it. As long as I’m fit and feel all right then I just keep going and playing.”