Column: With hope in our hearts

We're gonna win the league, we're gonna win the league, ee ay adio we're gonna win the league!

As Liverpool sit two points clear at the top of the table, the title is theirs to throw away.

Isn't it?

So that may, at this early stage of the season, be a tad optimistic. There is little doubt that soon enough LFC will be dealt a healthy dose of realism and fans can go back to debating if top four is as ambitious as we should be, rather than trying to stifle the nosebleeds that come with sitting at the peak of the mountain that is the Premier League.

The only place that, to paraphrase Journey, should not stop believing is the Liverpool dressing room.

It's right and proper that, after the club marked what would have been the 100th birthday of one of football's most quotable characters, Bill Shankly's words should resonate around Anfield:

"If you are first you are first. If you are second, you are nothing."

Another quote that should be written large upon the walls at Melwood comes from that most famous of wits, Oscar Wilde:

"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."

Liverpool Football Club should never enter a league campaign aiming to do anything less than finish top of the table. Of course it isn't always going to be a realistic aim and on occasion it will be nigh on impossible. But if you aim for the title and fail, at least a top-four finish could serve as an adequate replacement. If you aim for top four and finish sixth, the disappointment will be palpable.

As the always excellent Paul Tomkins has pointed out, no team that has finished outside the top four has gone on to win the Premier League title the following season. As Chelsea, Tottenham, Manchester City and, to a lesser extent, Arsenal have all gone on to strengthen their squads this summer it certainly seems that thoughts of a first championship win in over 20 years could be a stretch too far for the Reds this time around.

Title-winning squads need a number of factors to work in their favour. They need strength in depth - an area Liverpool can claim to have worked hard on in the transfer window. They need luck with refereeing decisions, the run of the ball and injuries. They need consistency - how often have we seen teams fall away as the season progresses? Most importantly of all, they need to have belief.

Against Manchester United, Liverpool were happy to sacrifice possession in the second half in the belief that their defence was strong enough to deal with any probing from their rivals' front line. With the exception of a speculative Nani shot and a nice run from Van Persie, United never really threatened and Liverpool looked to have the answers to the questions asked of them. That unremitting self-belief will be a crucial part of the Reds' continuing league campaign.

Despite playing three league games without conceding, Liverpool will, without question, go behind at some point this season. So the squad needs to believe that they can break down any defence, overturn any deficit that they may encounter. At the end of last season Liverpool seemed to be scoring goals for fun and for the first time in a long time it was rarer to lose than to draw or win. So it could be argued that LFC are learning how to grind out results when it matters.

Whilst the manager, players and backroom staff would unquestionably benefit from believing they can beat anyone they play and that the league could well be theirs for the taking, fans have a difficult tightrope to walk.

Football, ultimately, is entertainment, and entertainment should be fun. So fans should be allowed to revel in the fact that Liverpool are top of the table over the international break. Supporters can happily dream of Steven Gerrard finally wearing the league winner's medal he so richly deserves because anything else would be unnecessarily fatalistic.

But being a Liverpool fan isn't just about the good times. It's about walking on through the wind and the rain. So whilst we "look at the stars" and dream of better, brighter days to come we must also accept that more realistic targets are to be celebrated in just as forthright a manner as the accomplishment of our most outrageous wishes. Liverpool supporters should cheer the team on in the hopes of winning everything there is to win, but not berate them for the things they don't achieve.

Maybe this will be Liverpool's season, maybe it won't. But if the team doesn't believe that they can win the title then even a top-four finish will be little more than a pipe dream.

Thanks to an excellent summer in the transfer market Brendan Rodgers has some difficult selection decisions to make after the international break. Who should start in the defensive line? Sakho? Toure? Agger? Plus with Sturridge looking to shake off an injury and Suarez still suspended, figuring out who will play up front against Swansea could be a tricky proposition for the manager too. So it's only right and proper that the last word should fall once more to Bill Shankly:

"Ay, here we are with problems at the top of the league."

Who knows if we'll be there at the end of the season? We're there now. So walk on with hope in your heart and don't be ashamed to dream of the golden sky. We're Liverpool Football Club, and we've started our relentless march back to the pinnacle of the English game.  

Follow the author @Adam_Smith_82.