Jurgen Klopp insisted he was not joining any title-winning parties just yet after Liverpool took another giant step towards the Premier League crown with victory over Manchester United at Anfield.

Goals from Virgil Van Dijk and Mohamed Salah gave the Reds a 2-0 victory over their fiercest rivals which puts them 16 points clear at the top of the table, with a game in hand.

There were some nervy moments with the score only 1-0 entering the closing stages but, after Salah’s added-time breakaway effort, the Kop started to sing about winning the league for the first time this season.

“Of course they are allowed to dream and sing whatever they want and, as long as they do their job in the moment we play, all fine. But we will not be part of that party yet,” said manager Klopp.

“If our fans were not in a good mood now that would be really strange. It is a very positive atmosphere but I have to stay concentrated.

“We play on Thursday against Wolves. I am only interested in that game and nothing else.”

Liverpool dominated the contest after Van Dijk headed the hosts ahead on 14 minutes but they had two goals disallowed and spurned a host of other chances to make victory more comfortable.

“It was a really good game, one of the best derbies we have played so far,” added the German.

“We were very dominant in most periods of the game, we played outstandingly well.

“We were flexible and created chances. We only scored from a set-piece (in those periods) but had other chances, obviously, and the start of the second half was absolutely brutal. We had three or four chances at least, and didn’t score.

United boss Ole Gunnar Solksjaer, who revealed he is likely to be without talismanic striker Marcus Rashford for at least six weeks with a back injury, could not fault his players’ application.

“The players have given absolutely everything they’ve got. Commitment is no issue at all,” the Norwegian said.

“The last half an hour I felt we could take something from the game … we created some chances, put pressure on them, really pegged them back, made them look tired.

“But we didn’t have that quality in that last pass or cross and if you don’t (have that) you don’t get anything from places like this.”

-AAP