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Trent Alexander-Arnold of Liverpool with Virgil van Dijk after the Premier League win at Leicester City on April 20 2025(Image: Catherine Ivill - AMA/Getty Images)

Not for the first time this season, it was left to the Liverpool captain to make a timely intervention.

As Trent Alexander-Arnold loitered among his team-mates applauding the away end after the final whistle on Sunday afternoon, he was given a friendly shove by Virgil van Dijk.

Given the mixed reception the right-back's introduction from the bench during the second half had received from the travelling Kop - primarily positive but with an audible smattering of boos - his seeming reluctance to command a solo salute was understandable.

Alexander-Arnold, though, need not have worried as the Liverpool support responded with a huge ovation for the player who marked his return from injury with the matchwinning goal at Leicester City to send Arne Slot's side to the brink of the Premier League title.

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"We forget that we are dealing with a human being," says Van Dijk when later asked about the post-match celebrations.

"Sometimes he goes through so many moments in the last couple of months and everyone will have an opinion on the way he’s obviously been.

"But for us as players, we want to win games and he's been important throughout the whole season.

He's been important for all those years that we have been together and there's still games to go and then we to need to have the best Trent Alexander-Arnold and what happens in the future will happen, that's life and football and we'll see.”

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Alexander-Arnold, of course, is the sole remaining Liverpool player set to be out of contract in the summer after Van Dijk last week followed Mohamed Salah in agreeing a new deal.

While both Van Dijk and Salah made clear they wanted to stay, the right-back has consistently kept his own counsel on the subject and again refused to address the matter on Sunday.

"But he's a Liverpool player at this point and he's important for our team.

"He has been important throughout the whole season and on Sunday he came back from the injury, a long one, and that's what I'm happy about.

He's back in and among us, he's important and we have still five more games after this so hopefully he can be important for the rest of the games.

"Since I've joined the club, he has been a fantastic, fantastic player and there's a lot of good things that he will always be remembered for if he decides to leave.