Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers insisted results would improve after the Merseysiders suffered their third defeat in five Premier League matches this season with a 3-1 loss away to West Ham United on Saturday.
A dreadful start that saw both Winston Reid and then Diafra Sakho score for West Ham in the opening seven minutes at Upton Park ended up costing Liverpool dear.
Raheem Sterling pulled a goal back in the 26th minute and Liverpool were the better side for most of the second half.
But the visitors ended up conceding a game-clinching third goal when substitute Morgan Amalfitano scored two minutes from time.
Defence proved Liverpool’s Achilles heel when they came so close to winning the Premier League title last season before being edged by champions Manchester City.
And this latest loss left them a point behind West Ham in the table and six adrift of leaders Chelsea, who could go further ahead depending upon the result of their match with Manchester City on Sunday.
However, Rodgers said Liverpool had made a similarly slow start last season.
“I am very fortunate that I have an honest group of players that know that sort of level is not what we expect,” he said. “We will, over the course of the season, get better and better.
“We were brilliant last season and the only thing I will say is that at this point last season we weren’t playing to the level of the last three or four months.
“I remember people asking me whether we would score enough goals and we finished the season with 101,” the Northern Irishman added.
Luis Suarez, now at Barcelona, and Daniel Sturridge, currently injured, scored the majority of last season’s goals of course but Rodgers believes that the 3-0 win at Tottenham in August was more typical of his players than the West Ham loss.
“We showed our potential in the Tottenham game, when we had key players fit we showed in that game the real quality and the intensity of the team,” he said.
“But we still should be better than we were today. We have set a new expectancy at the club, which we will have to deal with now.
“Liverpool have always been a club everybody wants to beat but particularly now we are in the Champions League.”
Five-times European champions Liverpool had returned to that competition in midweek, earning a narrow victory over Bulgarian side Ludogorets Razgrad.
Many teams have suffered defeats in league action the weekend after playing in Europe and Rodgers acknowledged the issue by saying: “That is something we will have to deal with, and we will do.”
This win was West Ham’s first in front of their own supporters this season and a particularly important result for manager Sam Allardyce, who almost lost his job ahead of the current campaign because the east London club’s fans did not find last term’s football entertaining enough.
No-one in Claret and Blue was complaining after this match, of course and all of Allardyce’s most recent acquisitions, including Sakho, Amalfitano, Enner Valencia and Alex Song, were impressive.
“We really took them to task and played outstandingly well,” Allardyce said. “The only disappointment was that it was only 2-1 at half-time and not more. We deserved everything we got.
“Sakho and Enner Valencia terrorised Liverpool’s back four. That performance just shows what capabilities and level we might be able to achieve this season. Our players have hit the ground running.”
Allardyce reserved special praise for Sakho, who was playing for Metz last season. “Now he’s got two in two,” he said following the forward’s goal in the 2-2 draw at Hull on Monday.
“He has been a little bit under the radar because we bought Enner Valencia from Ecuador, who had a fantastic World Cup, and he came from having won the French second division but having scored 20 goals. He’s already looking fantastic.”
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Learn more about Qasr Al Hosn
In 2013, The National's History Project went beyond the walls to see what life was like living in Abu Dhabi's fabled fort:
Where to donate in the UAE
The Emirates Charity Portal
You can donate to several registered charities through a “donation catalogue”. The use of the donation is quite specific, such as buying a fan for a poor family in Niger for Dh130.
The General Authority of Islamic Affairs & Endowments
The site has an e-donation service accepting debit card, credit card or e-Dirham, an electronic payment tool developed by the Ministry of Finance and First Abu Dhabi Bank.
Al Noor Special Needs Centre
You can donate online or order Smiles n’ Stuff products handcrafted by Al Noor students. The centre publishes a wish list of extras needed, starting at Dh500.
Beit Al Khair Society
Beit Al Khair Society has the motto “From – and to – the UAE,” with donations going towards the neediest in the country. Its website has a list of physical donation sites, but people can also contribute money by SMS, bank transfer and through the hotline 800-22554.
Dar Al Ber Society
Dar Al Ber Society, which has charity projects in 39 countries, accept cash payments, money transfers or SMS donations. Its donation hotline is 800-79.
Dubai Cares
Dubai Cares provides several options for individuals and companies to donate, including online, through banks, at retail outlets, via phone and by purchasing Dubai Cares branded merchandise. It is currently running a campaign called Bookings 2030, which allows people to help change the future of six underprivileged children and young people.
Emirates Airline Foundation
Those who travel on Emirates have undoubtedly seen the little donation envelopes in the seat pockets. But the foundation also accepts donations online and in the form of Skywards Miles. Donated miles are used to sponsor travel for doctors, surgeons, engineers and other professionals volunteering on humanitarian missions around the world.
Emirates Red Crescent
On the Emirates Red Crescent website you can choose between 35 different purposes for your donation, such as providing food for fasters, supporting debtors and contributing to a refugee women fund. It also has a list of bank accounts for each donation type.
Gulf for Good
Gulf for Good raises funds for partner charity projects through challenges, like climbing Kilimanjaro and cycling through Thailand. This year’s projects are in partnership with Street Child Nepal, Larchfield Kids, the Foundation for African Empowerment and SOS Children's Villages. Since 2001, the organisation has raised more than $3.5 million (Dh12.8m) in support of over 50 children’s charities.
Noor Dubai Foundation
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum launched the Noor Dubai Foundation a decade ago with the aim of eliminating all forms of preventable blindness globally. You can donate Dh50 to support mobile eye camps by texting the word “Noor” to 4565 (Etisalat) or 4849 (du).
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Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
Series info
Test series schedule 1st Test, Abu Dhabi: Sri Lanka won by 21 runs; 2nd Test, Dubai: Play starts at 2pm, Friday-Tuesday
ODI series schedule 1st ODI, Dubai: October 13; 2nd ODI, Abu Dhabi: October 16; 3rd ODI, Abu Dhabi: October 18; 4th ODI, Sharjah: October 20; 5th ODI, Sharjah: October 23
T20 series schedule 1st T20, Abu Dhabi: October 26; 2nd T20, Abu Dhabi: October 27; 3rd T20, Lahore: October 29
Tickets Available at www.q-tickets.com
Stat Fourteen Fourteen of the past 15 Test matches in the UAE have been decided on the final day. Both of the previous two Tests at Dubai International Stadium have been settled in the last session. Pakistan won with less than an hour to go against West Indies last year. Against England in 2015, there were just three balls left.
Key battle - Azhar Ali v Rangana Herath Herath may not quite be as flash as Muttiah Muralitharan, his former spin-twin who ended his career by taking his 800th wicket with his final delivery in Tests. He still has a decent sense of an ending, though. He won the Abu Dhabi match for his side with 11 wickets, the last of which was his 400th in Tests. It was not the first time he has owned Pakistan, either. A quarter of all his Test victims have been Pakistani. If Pakistan are going to avoid a first ever series defeat in the UAE, Azhar, their senior batsman, needs to stand up and show the way to blunt Herath.
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Key findings of Jenkins report
- Founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al Banna, "accepted the political utility of violence"
- Views of key Muslim Brotherhood ideologue, Sayyid Qutb, have “consistently been understood” as permitting “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” and “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
- Muslim Brotherhood at all levels has repeatedly defended Hamas attacks against Israel, including the use of suicide bombers and the killing of civilians.
- Laying out the report in the House of Commons, David Cameron told MPs: "The main findings of the review support the conclusion that membership of, association with, or influence by the Muslim Brotherhood should be considered as a possible indicator of extremism."
