Dejan Lovren praises Liverpool's prolific forward line

Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah have looked formidable in the opening weeks of the season.

All three got on the scoresheet in Sunday's ruthless 4-0 demolition of Arsenal while England striker Daniel Sturridge also scored after coming off the bench.

Defender Lovren said: "I'm a Liverpool player and, of course, for me they are the best. They caused Arsenal a lot of problems.

"It's a long season and we will see towards the end of the season who is in the first place, but you can see the difference those three players make.

"I'm lucky that I don't have to face them very often in training. It tends to be the guys who aren't in the first XI.

"All three of them are top players, they have pace and great quality. They are amazing. It would be quite difficult for any defender when you are up against Salah, Mane and Firmino."

With the club adamant Philippe Coutinho will stay beyond the end of the transfer window, and with Adam Lallana currently out injured, the Reds' squad is not short of attacking options. There have also been unconfirmed reports the club could attempt to bring in Monaco winger Thomas Lemar before Thursday's transfer deadline.

Lovren said: "Going forward, we really showed our quality. We scored four goals and could have had more.

"It's not just the starting XI - look at the bench. Sturridge came on and scored within a couple of minutes. That says a lot about the strength we have."

Liverpool's victory took them second in the Premier League and their performance made a strong statement to the rest of the competition.

Lovren insisted nobody would be getting carried away, however, particularly with a testing trip to pre-season title favourites Manchester City in their next game.

The 28-year-old said: "We want to be better than last season. It's difficult to predict now and in football you need to have some luck too.

"But we've started the season in good shape and good form. Now we must continue like this.

"We need everyone to stay healthy during the international break and come back together and perform like this again against Manchester City."

Those sentiments were echoed by team-mate Emre Can, who was also impressed with how well the team performed on Sunday.

The German midfielder said: "It was a big, big performance. I think everyone did great and I think you can't play much better.

"Of course it gives us confidence and now we go into the internationals and everybody's happy. It's a good start now - but we have to keep working. Our performance was good, but we need to keep it up. It's just the start."