‘œIt gets tougher every year’ ‘“ Gerrard

Steven Gerrard says the challenge of winning the Premier League title gets tougher every year, but Liverpool are prepared for the fight this year.

In his programme notes for tonight’s first home game of the season against Stoke City, Gerrard says there’s less and less room for slip-ups with every league season.

He writes, ‘œIt looks like it’s going to be a really competitive league this season after the opening round of fixtures. We know that to win it we’re going to have to do even better than we did last season.

‘œThe points total we amassed last season would have been enough to win the title in the last three or four seasons but it was only good enough for second last year.

‘œEvery year it gets tougher to win this title but that’s our ambition. A setback on the opening day was disappointing but it’s not fatal. There’s plenty of time for us to recover and that starts tonight.’

Liverpool vs Stoke City gets underway at 8pm at Anfield. Stay tuned to This Is Anfield for the team line-ups and how to follow the match online shortly.