The Liverpool captain did it a round earlier than last year, but Virgil van Dijk once again found himself rising highest in the dying embers of a Carabao Cup game to head home decisively. It put the seal on a perfect evening — or at least nearly perfect.

By the time he found the net, the contest was already wrapped up. Despite starting a goal down on aggregate, Liverpool never looked in too much danger, completely controlling the game against Spurs from the outset.

Van Dijk was imperious alongside Ibrahima Konate, with the pair of them winning every aerial duel to thwart each attempted Tottenham out-ball. That led to waves of relentless Liverpool pressure, and there was a sense of inevitability when Cody Gakpo turned home Mohamed Salah's cross to square things up.

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A Salah penalty would give Liverpool the overall lead early in the second half, after good work from Darwin Nunez. From there, Spurs rarely threatened to mount a comeback, but there was still some relief when Dominik Szoboszlai capped a wonderful flowing move to put the contest to bed.

As for the Van Dijk goal, it was just an added bonus. And it came in a week where the Dutchman has found himself in the headlines, at least in certain outlets.

While never of any great provenance, claims emerged that Van Dijk had already signed a new contract with Liverpool. The more audacious even suggested that Salah's deal was also wrapped up.

Without wishing to blame God, this particular brand of rumor appears to owe a lot to Robbie Fowler, who shared his theory that two of the three out-of-contract players may have already signed. The lack of announcement, the idea goes, is to keep heat off the third player - Trent Alexander-Arnold - as negotiations continue.

But before the game, Van Dijk appeared to shut down any suggestion that he has already penned a contract extension. He maintained his consistent line:

"What the future brings? At the moment, I've got no idea," he repeated. "So anyone who says they know it, they are absolutely wrong. But we'll see what happens."

Even this disappointing proclamation could not put much of a dampener on what followed, with Liverpool booking its first final under Arne Slot, and a second consecutive trip to Wembley in the Carabao Cup. But there's no doubt that even amid all the success on the pitch, it's getting increasingly hard to ignore the contract situations.

After all, this is far from the first time that Salah and Van Dijk have both played important roles in a win this season. They have been two pillars of Slot's early success, and it is almost unthinkable to effectively force him back to the drawing board after what is shaping up to be a debut season for the ages.

Progress in the cup brought minds inexorably back to last year's final, where Van Dijk declared that "they thought I was finished". Let's hope that Liverpool does not make that same mistake, and ties down a player who remains among the very best around.