Virgil van Dijk delivers clear message to Liverpool teammates amid Arsenal title fight

Virgil van Dijk insists there is no cause for Liverpool to panic despite their perfect start to the Premier Leaguetitle defence being shattered by a woeful showing at Crystal Palace.

The Reds suffered a well-deserved 2-1 defeat to the undefeated Londoners on Saturday afternoon following a worryingly substandard display, especially during a one-sided opening period in which Palace warranted more than Ismaila Sarr's early strike. Sub Federico Chiesa seemed to have secured Arne Slot's team an improbable point with an 87th-minute leveller before Palace substitute Eddie Nketiah netted the decisive goal deep into stoppage time.

Liverpool have failed to consistently reach their peak this campaign as a host of summer arrivals continue to settle in a revamped squad that has depended on numerous late strikes to secure points. Following just a fifth Premier League loss in 44 matches under Slot, Reds captain Van Dijk has cautioned against knee-jerk reactions as a challenging week away from home continues with a Champions League encounter at Galatasaray on Tuesday night, reports the Liverpool Echo.

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"The biggest challenge now is to stay calm," he said. "I have mentioned it many times: never get too high or too low. Just work and don't listen to the outside world too much.

"You know when you can do better and everyone knew that. We are disappointed in our performance. Disappointed in the loss, but especially the way we went about it. I think if we got a draw, then we took already one point too many.

"I don't think there is any reason to worry, but we have to improve pretty quickly because obviously we play in Turkey on Tuesday. We have a very difficult game there as well, so we have to be ready."

Sarr's strike marked the first occasion Liverpool had fallen behind this campaign and established the foundation for a woeful defensive showing in which the Reds were grateful for a series of excellent stops from keeper Alisson Becker to keep them in contention before the interval.

Van Dijk said: "It was the basics that we didn't do well. Sometimes you can have these days. Hopefully this is the only day this season that we do that.

"There is a reason Palace were 17, now 18, games unbeaten. They are very difficult to break down, very disciplined, they defend deep and they don't mind that, and they have the quality on the break to hurt you.

"But it started all with ourselves. We were sloppy in possession, didn't win our second ball fight, and we created momentum for them. They could have been three or four up by half-time.

"We are lucky that we have, in my opinion, the best goalkeeper in the world to save us. The issue is our performance. Especially first half, it was far below par. That is something we have to improve.

"It doesn't really matter if we score late because sometimes teams are difficult to break down and you have to find a way to win games. Towards the end, teams are getting tired and the spaces will get bigger. So that's not the issue. It is more looking at our performance, it was definitely not good. Not good at all. Palace deserved the win they eventually got as well."

Liverpool remain top of the Premier League but Arsenal could close the gap to two points and move up to second if they beat Newcastle on Sunday.