Dejan Lovren says Liverpool can match Arsenal's Invincibles and go whole season unbeaten

Lovren sees no reason why Liverpool cannot remain unbeaten until the end of the season

Mark Critchley
Northern Football Correspondent
Wednesday 19 December 2018 16:01 GMT
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Jurgen Klopp talks to the press after victory against Manchester United

Dejan Lovren believes that Liverpool can emulate Arsenal’s Invincibles and remain unbeaten for the remainder of the Premier League season.

Liverpool sit one point clear at the top of the table after Sunday’s 3-1 win over Manchester United and are the only top-flight team that is yet to suffer defeat.

Only two sides in the history of top-flight English football have gone a whole campaign unbeaten – Preston North End in 1888-89 and Arsenal in 2003-04.

Lovren believes that becoming the third will be a challenge for Liverpool, yet sees no reason why he and his team-mates cannot do it.

“It’s a good result I would say for us,” the centre-back said after Sunday’s win. “Hopefully we can be unbeaten until the end of the season.

“Of course it will be a challenge but this is what we want, this is why we came here to Liverpool, because we know we can do it. Arsenal did it before so why not?”

Liverpool travel to Wolverhampton Wanderers on Friday night and can extend their lead over defending champions Manchester City to four points with victory.

Lovren insisted on Sunday that Liverpool are not paying attention to City’s results and, instead, are simply concentrating on what they have to do each week.

“Look, there’s a competition,” he said. “This is what we want, but we don’t look at who is in front of us or behind us. It’s just about us.

“It’s more about how we train, how we do on the pitch and the result will come. There are quite a lot of games still to go but we go game-by-game.”

Lovren added: “I’m not sure that [City] have any weaknesses. Last year they won with 19 points. They know how to manage even when they lose. They also lost one or two games last year. Still they managed to be 19 points ahead. It doesn’t mean anything.

“There are so many games in front of us and in front of them. It will be a tight race and it’s not only City. Tottenham is only a couple of points behind.

“You cannot sit and enjoy and say: ‘We have five or six points in front of everyone’. It doesn’t work like that. Every game for us is a final.”

Lovren is likely to start at Molineux on Friday following an injury crisis in Jürgen Klopp’s defence, with fellow centre-halves Joe Gomez and Joel Matip ruled out.

Nathaniel Clyne, meanwhile, impressed while making his first league start since May at right-back on Sunday to cover for Trent Alexander-Arnold and James Milner.

Clyne made his first league appearance in months on Sunday
Clyne made his first league appearance in months on Sunday (Getty)

Lovren believes Clyne’s recall showed Liverpool can cope with a mounting list of absentees, given that Klopp’s squad now has strength in depth.

“I think there are quite a lot of players who have been for a couple of seasons now with Jurgen,” he said.

“We know and he knows what we need to do so there’s not too much to say, especially for Clyney. When you look back, he didn’t play for I don’t know how many months and he did a fantastic game.

“This is important, and of course it’s important to keep this momentum and to enjoy this moment. Hopefully there won’t be many injuries because we need everyone. Today, even the 25th player is important.”

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