DEFIANT Rafael Benitez has urged Liverpool not to panic after their championship challenge suffered another blow.

Goals from Nicolas Anelka and Florent Malouda consigned the Anfield outfit to a 2-0 defeat at Chelsea yesterday.

It was Liverpool’s third loss in their first eight Premier League games, compared to the two during the whole of the previous campaign.

Benitez’s side are now outside the Champions League places and stand six points adrift of the Londoners, who have moved clear at the top of the table.

But the Liverpool manager said: “People are talking about us having three defeats already but it’s important for us to keep calm and keep working.

“This year the top sides will lose points against the other teams. The main thing is for us to improve and try to do the right things. It is a long race.”

Asked if his side could still win the league, Benitez said: “It’s more difficult to convince the press that but I will try to do it with the players. Taking things one game at a time is the only way you can improve.

“Chelsea are very, very strong and we will see if we can win games. We’ll see what happens and have a look at the table in January and in April.”

The defeat ends a run of four successive Premier League wins that had steadied the ship after Liverpool lost two of their opening three games.

And Benitez said: “We drew a lot of games last season.

“We only lost two but we had all those draws, and maybe this season we can win more games, maybe lose more, but it will mean that we have more points.

“We can’t just keep thinking about that we’ve lost three games already.

“We just have to keep going.”