Liverpool boss Roy Hodgson insists his new-look team needs time to gel.

Hodgson insists he can manage the expectations that come with being in charge of a top club - despite Liverpool's stuttering start.

He said: "The expectations here are very, very high so having had plenty of highs and some lows in my career can only be advantageous.

"Are people suggesting that we should be doing the same as Arsenal, who have had the same team together for the last six years and Chelsea, who have just won the league?

"If so I would accuse them of being unrealistic at this moment in time.

"This is a new team, there are four or five new players. We finished seventh last season so I don't understand why it's suggested we should be comparing ourselves every day with Chelsea or Manchester United at this early stage of the season.

"It will be nice if we can get there. We will see but I certainly don't make that demand upon the players."

He added: "If I had still been at Fulham and we had lost three or four of the opening games, then people would have been saying were the last two-and-a-half years a flash in the pan.

"Those things don't bother me. It is one of those things you must learn to live with.

"It doesn't change anything. I work the same way as I did last year."