Jurgen Klopp hailed Liverpool's fighting spirit after they recovered from a goal down to beat Southampton and return to the Premier League summit.
Mohamed Salah ran from inside his own half to find the net for the first time in nine games, 10 minutes from time, to help the title-chasing Reds move two points ahead of rivals Manchester City .
Substitute Jordan Henderson tapped home a late third to seal the success after Naby Keita's first goal in English football cancelled out Shane Long's early opener for the in-form hosts.
Klopp said: “The performance was not top level - but it is about fighting.
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“People want us to play like Manchester City. We are unable to do that - we play our own football.
“We have 82 points now. That is massive in this crazy league with everyone is waiting for us. I am really proud. It is incredible.
“We had to work for this. But all three goals were brilliant. It is nice for Naby Keita to score the first. After that we controlled the game.
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"We have 82 points. You need 90 or so for the title. We are in the race.
“I told the boys we have a good mentality amongst us. We work for the moment, not wait for the moment.
“Mo could not pass for his goal. It was go, go, go - and a world-class finish. This win was really big for us."
Defender Van Dijk said: "You know there's not many games left, any mistakes could cost us.
"We wanted to win this game no matter what and I think in the second half we pressed and we kept going and I don't think they had any chances in the second half apart from some corners and set pieces but it was a well-deserved win."
