Liverpool stars Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold both talked up the enormity of winning at St James' Park in the aftermath of Newcastle United's 2-0 loss on Saturday night.
The Dutchman made his return to the starting line-up for the Reds after a six-week lay off while the England full-back was the driving force for Jurgen Klopp's side. The Merseyside club's victory proved to be Newcastle's only defeat on home turf this season and their first loss since Liverpool won in May on Tyneside.
Alexander-Arnold said after the game: "It’s massive. This was a big one. We got our win against Everton, that was a massive one for us as well. It would have meant nothing if we'd come here and hadn’t backed it up with another win."
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Liverpool were already in control when Nick Pope was sent off for an error as he rushed out to smother a Mo Salah run. The Kop full-back added: "They're a tough side to beat but we picked them apart. The red card settled things down for us.
"Not many teams come here and win, so we’re delighted to take the three points home. The atmosphere's top, so it's important to get an early goal to settle that down. It was a good sequence of play, something we've worked on in training. It was a great run from Darwin and a great finish."
Meanwhile, Van Dijk also underlined the importance of victory at St James'. He said: "Winning and keeping a clean sheet against a side who have only been beaten once this season – it was well deserved. Obviously, there were moments were we could have done better, but to come away with three points and a clean sheet and to be back in the team, I’m incredibly happy. I’m very proud of the guys."
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