Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard is calling for realism as The Reds fine start to the campaign sees them level on points with leaders Chelsea and eight points ahead of champions Manchester United. However, Gerrard knows there is a long way to go before Liverpool can claim their first League crown since 1990.

"It's nice but it raises expectations," he told Champions magazine when asked about talk of Liverpool being genuine title contenders.

"It's important to stay humble. We know we're a good team, we know we're getting closer to a title challenge - we can say that. But we've got to prove we can stay in the race to the end.

"I can understand why people are saying it. We've gone down a couple of times by goals, we haven't given up and we've managed to turn games around.

"So now they're saying we've got title credentials."