Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand is confident of a sustained title challenge in the second-half of the season.
"We didn't [set the pace] last season and it didn't do us much harm, but we do need to start winning consistently and hopefully we'll hit some form now and go on a run of winning a lot of games," the England defender said. "That would get us back up there and challenging. We know we can do that, so there's no need to panic.
"You'd love to be leading the league from day one, but it doesn't often happen like that. When you look around the changing-room and see the quality of players, I know we're good enough to win trophies.
"We're all still confident and believe we can go on a 10- or 20-game unbeaten run. Our aim now is to make sure we're within touching distance at Christmas so we can kick on next year and reel those teams in."
Liverpool lead the table for the first time in December for seven years but Ferdinand believes it remains to be seen how the Merseyside club will handle the pressure of the title chase come the final months of the season, provided they are still in contention by then.
"Experience is key when it comes to the title run-in, but sometimes not knowing what to expect can also be beneficial because you go into certain situations with no fear," Ferdinand said. "Liverpool haven't challenged too seriously for the league for a long time but we won't know what effect that will have on them until the end of the season. That's if they're still there or thereabouts, of course."