Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp fears the Premier League title is "already decided" if Manchester City maintain their dominant start to the campaign.
City came from behind to clinch a 2-1 victory at Huddersfield Town on Sunday and extend their unbeaten opening to the season, and they have also won all five of their matches in the Champions League.
Pep Guardiola's men are eight points clear of Manchester United at the top of the league, with Liverpool a further six points adrift in sixth.
Klopp insists he is not concentrating on catching City at this point in the season but wants to be in the best position possible to capitalise if the leaders do drop points.
"I saw the game against Huddersfield. It was deserved that City won," he said. "The game before that they won 1-0 in the Champions League [against Feyenoord].
"So they win, and as long as they win nobody else has a chance.
"If they stop winning and other teams have a good moment, then pretty much each distance point-wise is possible.
"But I don't care about that at the moment. I don't know if other teams are doing it.
"We want to have the next three [points] and then the next three and then the next three, because if anybody struggles then you need to be there.
"But it's not for us at the moment. They are too far away, of course.
"If they keep on going like this then nobody has a chance, it's already decided."
Klopp named Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino among the substitutes for last weekend's 1-1 draw with Chelsea but says they could return to the starting XI at Stoke City on Wednesday.
"It made sense at this part of the season to use the strength of the squad," he added. "It's not completely unlikely they will start.
"We feel in a good way. Chelsea are an unbelievably difficult team to play, we played them in a completely different manner. We dominated them. That's fantastic, but we didn't win. But I still feel we are in a good way.
"This is now a really decisive period of the season. We need to be spot on."
