Newcastle United boss Eddie Howe says their clash with Liverpool is a "huge test".
Newcastle host Liverpool on Saturday night.
Howe said, It has been pivotal; your home form always is to how successful your season is. We've enjoyed playing at home; lately we've wanted more goals and we've been a bit frustrated but teams have defended well against us and it's up to us to find solutions.
Liverpool will provide a different test to what we've had in recent weeks. They're a top team with an outstanding manager so the test will be a huge one."
I don't look at the league table, I don't study it, I don't analyse it. I've said that many times. The reason for that is it changes so quickly; I look at it purely as 'can we maximise our efforts?' and the league table will take care of itself.
I'm aware we are in a great position, but there are lots of games to come and big teams wanting to climb the table. We can't focus on them, we can only focus on ourselves."
On managing the squad before the EFL Cup final, he added: [Going full throttle] is our only way. You can't play these games in any way leas than 100%, especially against the top teams and we are facing them in the next three weeks."