Lovren: 'We have to keep momentum going'

Dejan Lovren says Liverpool will not be celebrating despite securing the Premier League's Christmas number one spot. A 2-0 win at Wolves on Friday, inspired by Mohamed Salah, moved Liverpool four points clear of champions Manchester City, who can reduce the deficit at home to Crystal Palace on Saturday.

Liverpool host Newcastle United and Arsenal over the festive period before heading to the Etihad Stadium on January 3 for what looks a titanic tussle in the Premier League's title race. And despite the Reds winning a sixth straight game in all competitions, Lovren called for Liverpool to keep up their performance levels over Christmas.

"We maybe have a better schedule than last year," he told the club's website. "We have time to recover and we have quite a big squad.

"People from the bench came on and got into our rhythm, which is quite important for us. [But] it's no time to celebrate or anything. We have Newcastle next on Wednesday, so let's keep this momentum and keep it going game by game."

Liverpool were far from their best at Molineux, but led in the first half thanks to Salah's 11th Premier League goal of the season, the Egypt star then crossing for Virgil van Dijk to score a second-half clincher.

Lovren, who this week called for Liverpool to target staying unbeaten throughout the league campaign, accepted the Reds had to dig deep to take all three points from a testing trip to in-form Wolves played in wet conditions.

"It was a tough game but we showed our quality and our experience," the Croatia international defender added. "I'm sure if we had played a couple of seasons ago here we would have struggled. We have learned from these previous seasons how to play these difficult games and we did it quite well.

"In some difficult times we kept the ball and sometimes we showed, like the boss said, this matureness and this readiness again when we lose the ball to be there and to stay hungry to the end of the game because we know what we are playing for. It's the three points and this is all that matters.

"It wasn't an easy pitch with the rain and everything but again we showed the quality, everyone was believing and everyone was ready from the beginning. It was, trust me, a big three points."