That is the suggestion of pundit Shaka Hislop.
The Reds have matched defending champions Manchester City almost stride-for-stride so far this term with both teams on 26 points after eight wins and two draws from 10 games – including a 0-0 against each other at Anfield in early October.
But City sit first thanks to their superior goal difference, having scored seven goals more and conceded one less than the Merseyside club across the same span.
Pep Guardiola’s men have continued their imperious form from last season when they achieved the unprecedented achievement of amassing 100 points in the top flight on their way to a thoroughly-deserved title triumph.
But despite Liverpool standing level on points with favourites City so far, critics have claimed that Jurgen Klopp’s side have yet to find top gear even though they have remained unbeaten in clashes with City, Tottenham and Chelsea.
Liverpool’s spending since January has helped make them a truly formidable side with their defence leaking just four goals in 10 games having improved immensely with Virgil van Dijk and Alisson Becker both pivotal.
Up top, it has been claimed that Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino have not clicked as well as last term when they contributed 91 goals across all competitions, although Salah and Mane scored three of their four goals in a 4-1 defeat of Cardiff at the weekend.
And while many expect Liverpool to push City all the way in 2018-19, Hislop thinks it could be post-January that the real Liverpool show themselves – having exploded after the festive period last term when they made the Champions League final as part of an excellent run of form.
“Given last season’s league run that City had I don’t expect them to be as good as they were last year and at the same time I expect Liverpool to be better,” former Premier League goalkeeper Hislop told ESPN FC.
“But that’s a huge gap to close between the two. I think that gap will be smaller but just not enough.
“At the same time though, if you’re Liverpool, I still think Liverpool can get even better.
“The game against Cardiff kind of summed it up.
“Their second goal came with their first shot on target in the second half, they run out 4-1 winners and if you can play poorly by their standards for that long a patch against a poor team like Cardiff and still come away 4-1 winners, you’re doing a whole lot right.
“Liverpool were better the second half of last season because [Virgil] Van Dijk joined in January, maybe they do the same this time around? But still, too big a gap for them to close.”
Before City beat Tottenham at Wembley on Monday night, Liverpool temporarily returned to the top of the league table after beating Cardiff.
But Klopp insists there is no significance as to which team leads the pack at this point given Chelsea are two points behind with Arsenal and Spurs only just further back in fourth and fifth.
He said: “The number of points makes a massive difference because the difference between 23 and 26 points feels like 20 points, pretty much!
“But it’s only three, so it’s really important to stay on track. We will all meet each other and stuff like that, so it’s unbelievable that five or six clubs have such a big number of points.
“It makes it only even more intense. It’s good for the people and the supporters of all the different clubs.
“It was clear if we won [vs Cardiff] it would be like that [Liverpool would go top] – now we have won the game and that’s really good. For us, it’s just the next step, so that’s cool.
“Now we have time to recover – first time for a lot of the boys that they don’t play in three days again and our international players haven’t had that since I don’t know when.
“So we will use the time to recover and prepare for the Arsenal game [on Saturday, 5.30pm], which will be another nice challenge.”