Liverpool's next five fixtures compared with Man City and Arsenal after fine start to season

Liverpool signed off for the international break with a 1-0 win at Crystal Palace to preserve the club's position at the top of the Premier League table.

Diogo Jota's strike was enough to get the Reds over the line at Selhurst Park as they temporarily opened up a four-point lead in first place.

Manchester City and Arsenal were both in action a few hours later, though, and came from behind to record victories that cut Liverpool's lead at the top of the table back down to a single point.

Over the next week and a bit, the players' focus will be on their international teams, with 18 players from the Reds' first-team squad called up to represent their countries, either at senior level or at Under-21 level.

• Liverpool opens contract talks with two first-team players
• The games Alisson could miss through injury as Arne Slot admits he fears significant lay-off

After the break, Liverpool's fixture schedule significantly increases in difficulty, so we've taken a look at how the club's run of league games compares to Manchester City and Arsenal.

Liverpool

• Chelsea (h) - October 20
• Arsenal (a) - October 27
• Brighton (h) - November 2
• Aston Villa (h) - November 9
• Southampton (a) - November 24

Liverpool resumes its season with four games against teams that currently find themselves inside the Premier League's top six. Arne Slot has recently acknowledged - on several occasions - that his team has had favorable fixtures to start the campaign, and the next few games will tell us a lot about where the team is at under Slot.

Chelsea has shown signs of encouragement under Enzo Maresca and possesses an array of attacking talent, while a trip to the Emirates to face Arsenal is now among the trickiest fixtures in any team's calendar. Brighton and Aston Villa have both started the season well, and the Reds will return from the November international break with a palatable fixture away to Southampton.

Arsenal

• Bournemouth (a) - October 19
• Liverpool (h) - October 27
• Newcastle (a) - November 2
• Chelsea (a) - November 10
• Nottingham Forest (h) - November 23

Arsenal also has a tricky run of fixtures coming up, with Liverpool visiting North London at the end of October before away games against Newcastle and Chelsea. Mikel Areta's men will be targeting maximum points from the games against Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest either side of that tricky triple-header.

Manchester City

• Wolves (a) - October 20
• Southampton (h) - October 26
• Bournemouth (a) - November 2
• Brighton (a) - November 9
• Tottenham (h) - November 23

On paper, Manchester City undoubtedly has the easiest run of fixtures out of the three teams, with the club's next two games coming against the league's current bottom two, in Wolves and Southampton. A trip to 13th-placed Bournemouth follows, before it gets slightly trickier for Pep Guardiola's men, with a trip to Brighton followed by a home game against Tottenham. City has only won on two of its last four trips to the AMEX Stadium, while Spurs emerged from the Etihad with a point last season.