Brendan Rodgers: Looking to keep Liverpool within touching distance of the leaders

The Reds made the best possible start to their 2013/14 campaign, with three successive 1-0 wins taking them to the top of the Premier League standings.

It was always going to be difficult to maintain such high standards, and only one point has been collected from their last two outings after drawing with Swansea and losing at home to Southampton.

Liverpool are, however, just two points adrift of table-topping Arsenal and can concentrate all of their efforts on remaining in the mix after tumbling out of the Capital One Cup at the hands of Manchester United on Wednesday.

Rodgers hopes a lack of cup distractions will play into the Reds' hands, allowing them to then kick-on in the New Year when further fresh faces can be drafted in.

"Now we can only concentrate on the league up until Christmas," he said.

"So we have to make sure we stay up in that top six in the league and keep fighting and hopefully we can reinforce in January.

"I think the players have made an excellent start. We were flat and subdued at the weekend (against Southampton) and we couldn't get going - part of that was because of the players we had available."