Maligned Luiz more colossus than clown

Statistics don’t always tell the whole story but David Luiz has a right to point to them when he turns up at Anfield with new club Arsenal still being billed as the Premier League’s defensive comedy routine up against the country’s best centre-back, Virgil van Dijk.

For most people, it seems, the two are on a different planet. Van Dijk, Liverpool’s man mountain and player of the year whose arrival turned them into Premier League title contenders. Luiz, Arsenal’s last-gasp signing when others didn’t arrive, a player with wonderful passing skills but who Gary Neville once said defended like a PlayStation player controlled by a child.