Dejan Lovren considered his goal against Crystal Palace the ideal response to make amends for a mistake at the other end moments earlier.

Just two minutes after Liverpool had taken the lead through Emre Can at Selhurst Park, the centre-back’s short pass allowed James McArthur to steal in and equalise with a header.

But Lovren promptly restored his team’s advantage by meeting a Philippe Coutinho corner and planting a header of his own underneath the goalkeeper.

The visitors went on to triumph 4-2 and maintain their position alongside the Premier League’s early pace-setters on 23 points.

“It was a tough game,” Lovren told Liverpoolfc.com post-match.

“The first half was ups and downs, with a couple of mistakes and my mistake. But, to be honest, I was sure we would come back.

“And thank God I scored also – I managed to say sorry for the mistake. It was a good performance. The most important thing is the three points.

“If you want to be in the top four, you need to have the winning mentality – even when you make mistakes. Keep your head up and forget about them. Everyone did that well. We showed big character.”

Lovren’s partner in central defence, Joel Matip, was also on the scoresheet with a powerful header from a corner – and the No.6 was pleased with their contribution.

He said: “We knew that they are really dangerous at set-pieces, they are a really tall team. But we scored from two, perfect crosses from Philippe and great headers.”

And added: “Everyone up front was on fire, especially Philippe and Roberto [Firmino]. [Sadio] Mane had a couple of chances he could have scored in the first half. We just need to keep working hard and go step by step.”