If Liverpool’s 97 points wasn’t enough to win them the league last season, they’ll just have to go out and win a couple more of them this time around to make sure that they come out on top and break a title drought that’s now stretched to three decades.

“Last season we achieved a club record number of points in the Premier League,” Fabinho told Liverpool’s official website. “I think it was the third-highest points total in the history of the competition. This shows how much the level of competition is increasing.

“All our rivals are very strong. It shows that if we want to be champions we have to do something extra. It’s not enough beating the record, sometimes we have to do even more. We’ve focused upon this at the start of the season and started really well.”

If beating last season’s already lofty tally is the goal, they have at least started well. In fact, nobody has started better than Liverpool, perfect through five league games and with the best goal differential in the Premier League giving them an early cushion.

And after taking some time to settle in at his new club last season before proving his worth in the second half of it both in England and Europe, Fabinho has been integral to that early success and will need to continue his good form if they’re to keep winning.

He will be expected to start on Sunday against Chelsea before he and other key first team players are given a game off mid-week against MK Dons in the League Cup with an eye to the following weekend’s league game against Sheffield United.