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Xherdan Shaqiri insists his Liverpool side are proving they can cope with the pressure of being title favourites.

Winger Shaqiri claims after Saturday's 5-1 hammering of Arsenal that the Reds are going to thrive on the expectation of being Premier League leaders and now odds-on favourites with some bookies.

He said: “When you are first in the table everyone comes after you, everyone wants to beat you, so every game is very tough. We just have to keep going, to stay at the highest level.

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“Pressure is everywhere in your life. Even in football, there is always pressure. The pressure is always here.

“In the end for us it’s not really important where we stand because we want to win games and we want to win games until the end. Then we will see what happens. We are in a very good way to be successful.”

(Image: EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

Shaqiri also says that Liverpool will have no fear when they travel to the Etihad on Thursday to tackle champions and nearest challengers Manchester City - and insists they will go there intending to beat Pep Guardiola’s men.

“We’re confident to try to win the game,” he said. “Of course, they’re going to come after us and try to win, to grab three points. It’s going to be a very interesting game, a good game. We’re looking forward to this game to go and make a very good performance.

“In the end, you have to go into the game to win games and everything follows along.

(Image: Getty)

“We play very good football, very successful football, and we are in a very good way to be very successful.

“Everything can happen this season, but it’s a long way to go. We are very happy. In a few days we have another one and we are going to go again.

“We don’t go there to take Man City out of the race, we go there for a Premier League game. We go there to make a good performance, first of all, and try to win games. That’s the only goal that we have. There are not other things in our minds at the moment.”