Wolves star explains why he was in tears after Liverpool defeat in message to fans

Liverpool didn't play at its peak level against Wolves this weekend but it was still enough to earn the three points in the Premier League and send Arne Slot's side top of the standings.

With 32 more matches to go, no one at Anfield will be getting ahead of themselves. But it continues to build on the positive start the Reds have made under their new head coach.

Wolves, in contrast, has endured a difficult start to the season. Yet to pick up more than a single point, Gary O'Neil's side has faced some of its trickiest games already, though, including against Liverpool , Chelsea, Arsenal , Newcastle United and Aston Villa.

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Nevertheless, captain Mario Lemina appeared to be in tears at the final whistle . The Gabon international covered his face with his shirt once the referee blew for full-time.

"My pain is not personal," he has since posted on Instagram. "This group, this club, all the people around the club deserve much better than that. We are not gonna give up! 100 per cent. I know well my brothers. We are fully committed to change the future. Big challenge ahead of us."

"It's almost ideal that we played Wolves today because we are top and they're last and they absolutely don't deserve to be last," Slot said during his post-match press conference. "They had a very difficult fixture list and I've seen many games of them and in almost every game they deserve more.

"You could even argue [that] today because it wasn't like we were so much better than them. They were in the game [and] doing a lot of good things. If they keep doing this against other teams as well they will never end up No.20 [in the league]."

Liverpool.com says: Wolves will be absolutely fine this season in terms of staying up. O'Neil's side will pick up points when their fixtures start to look a little easier.

That makes the Reds' victory slightly more impressive. Slot was rightly pointing to this game being harder than it looked beforehand and even though Liverpool didn't play well, it was always in control of things aside from Ibrahima Konate's lapse in concentration.