Last year was perfect for Virgil van Dijk: Sokratis

Arsenal's Sokratis Papastathopoulos said last year was perfect for Liverpool's Virgil van Dijk.

"You've also got very good defenders now. What Virgil van Dijk did last year was something very difficult for every defender to do. Last year for him was perfect, especially for all the people close to him who helped him a lot. He was very good and it was a good year for him," the club's official website quoted Papastathopoulos as saying.

Papastathopoulos said the game has changed a lot in the last 10 or 12 years.

"Football has changed a lot in the past 10 or 12 years. When I started football, I was in Italy. I was in Greece first, but afterwards I made the step to Italy. It was not so necessary to play out from the back and because of this, you also didn't concede a lot of chances or a lot of goals," he said.

"Now, every team, or most, has to start from the back and exchange a lot of passes to arrive in the opposite area and to score. The more passes and more things you do, you also have more risk inside. For this, it's more beautiful football, but also the teams concede more goals because the players are not robots. Everybody makes mistakes," Papastathopoulos added.

Arsenal are currently placed on the 10th spot on the Premier League table with 27 points.