Virgil van Dijk makes Arsenal prediction as Liverpool captain plans potential title party

Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk is preparing to gather his team-mates together to watch Arsenal vs Crystal Palace on Wednesday. The Reds will officially become champions if their rivals suffer a shock defeat, but their captain expects the title won't be official until the weekend at the earliest.

Both teams won over the weekend, with Arsenal demolishing Ipswich at Portman Road and Liverpool needing a Trent Alexander-Arnold winner to see off Leicester. There's a 13-point gap between the teams with five games to go, meaning defeat for Arsenal in midweek will make it impossible to catch the league leaders.

It's not something Van Dijk expects to happen, but the Dutchman is prepared in case it does. “To be honest. I expect Arsenal to win at home but yeah, if it doesn't happen then I think it would be nice to be together," he said.

“So however that may look, we will discuss in the next couple of days. But if Arsenal just win that game, what they probably expect they will do against a very good Crystal Palace, then we have to do our job at the weekend.”

If Arsenal manage to keep up the pressure on Wednesday, their rivals can still clinch the title on Sunday. Liverpool's next league game comes against Tottenham, who may have half an eye on their Europa League meeting with Bodo/Glimt four days later.

Arsenal have already beaten Palace twice this season. They won 5-1 at Selhurst Park in December, and also claimed a 3-2 Carabao Cup quarter-final win earlier the same month.

Gabriel Jesus scored five goals across those two games, but will miss out with the ACL injury which brought his season to an early end. Bukayo Saka was injured in the December league win, but he returned to action in early April and will be available to play a part in midweek.

Liverpool boss Arne Slot is on the verge of winning the league title in his first season and spoke about the excitement of potentially sealing the title in front of a full Anfield. Their previous triumph, back in 2019-20, came with stadiums remaining empty as Premier League football returned following a Covid-impacted hiatus.

"We're all looking forward to that game [against Spurs]," Slot said after Sunday's win at Leicester. "Always when we play at home, we look forward to it. But we've already played Tottenham a few times and we know they can make it very difficult for us.

"They're a good team, they have all their injured players back, they're still playing for something in Europe as well. But I'm looking forward to it because I assume our fans will be loud on Sunday."

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