NOBODY at Liverpool wants to talk about them winning the title yet and rightly so.

But plenty of people are talking about it – and the fact that they’ll be talking about it in dressing rooms in west London and Manchester proves how justified it is.

And what is said there speaks far more volumes than anyone inside Anfield possibly could if they reflected on their superb start to the season.

The reason Liverpool have failed to sustain a genuine challenge in recent years is because when they do come up against Chelsea or Manchester United their shortcomings are usually fully exposed. They don’t look like the real deal.

But now they have six points from six in meetings with the ‘big two’ this season, whereas before they’ve been lucky to have one.

Even the win against Manchester United last month looked like something of a one-off when Liverpool couldn’t break down Stoke at home seven days later.

But what better test of your credentials can you have than Stamford Bridge? A ground that hadn’t hosted a Premier League home defeat for almost five years.

Breaking that 86-game unbeaten run was about so much more than notching an impressive statistic though.

Because there’s no doubt whatsoever that results and performances like that give you a massive confidence boost and instil a belief that perhaps wasn’t there before.

The players have proved to themselves what they are capable of now and, perhaps more importantly, have proved to their rivals what they are capable of.

That could have just as stunning an impact.

Compare the way Liverpool stayed calm, assured and in complete control against Chelsea to the way Manchester United lost it at Goodison Park.

They were winning comfortably then went to pieces for no real reason whatsoever. Lost it completely.

It’s almost as if self-doubt has already crept in, and performances like the one Liverpool turned in on Sunday will only increase that. A very good weekend all round.

And one which Rafael Benitez has to take a lot of credit for. He has surely sat down in the summer and thought, ‘right, I have to give this league a go by settling on my preferred 11’.