Virgil van Dijk has revealed that a desire to protect team-mate Mohamed Salah was behind his touchline bust-up with Sokratis Papastathopoulos.
The Arsenal defender was seen angrily remonstrating with Salah as the pair headed for the tunnel at half-time of Saturday's meeting between the sides at Anfield.
Moments earlier, Liverpool's star forward had converted from 12 yards after going down under a challenge that Sokratis clearly felt did not merit a penalty.
But Van Dijk was quickly on the scene to support his colleague - and has vowed to do the same again if required.
He explained: "I saw that he went to Mo [Salah] and was saying that he dived. He was attacking him a bit, but I wanted to say he didn’t dive.
"Obviously everyone came around us and it looked like we were fighting or something but we weren’t. I just wanted to talk to him. But that happens in football and we move on.
"I’m protecting my teammates and that’s normal, that’s how everyone should react and that’s what we all need to do, to back each other. That’s what I definitely do."
After weeks of insisting Manchester City's results are of no concern to them, Van Dijk and co can finally turn their attentions toward Pep Guardiola's team and a crucial visit to their Etihad Stadium home on Thursday.
A win would put Liverpool 10 points clear of the reigning champions, who have suffered a wobble in recent weeks, while defeat would serve to reignite the title race.
And Van Dijk says Jurgen Klopp's men will head to Manchester full of confidence as they look to extend a 20-game unbeaten run in the league.
He added: "We can now focus on the City game. Before we didn’t do that. Arsenal had been playing pretty well this season so we had to stay focused on them, not think about City.
"We have finished 2018 now pretty well and hopefully we can keep that going.
"City is a game that we want to win. It will be very hard, very tough, but for them as well. It’s going be a good match, but it is not a decisive game or something like that. We are not going to treat it different to any other.
"We will be prepared for a very tough game.
"Confidence is definitely here, but it can change over a couple of games. We won’t get carried away. We need to keep doing what we have been doing.
"There will be setbacks, as there always is in life, but it’s how you react and so far we have been doing pretty well.
"There are things to improve, but we are top of the league, still in the Champions League, and we are doing well, just need to keep going."
Van Dijk has missed just one of Liverpool's 27 fixtures this season - the EFL Cup defeat to Chelsea back in September - and, with Joe Gomez and Joel Matip both injured, is unlikely to be rested anytime soon.
But the Dutchman claims he isn't feeling the pace, and said: "I don’t need to rest. Everyone wants to play every game.
"It’s not like you want to sit on the bench or be in the stand. I just go with it. As long as I’m fit and feel all right then I just keep going and playing."
How will the 2018-19 Premier League season finish up?
