Eddie Howe was asked by a journalist if he was interviewed for the the England job. He said: "no I wasn't, no". He was then asked if he was ever approached by the FA and simply replied with: "no".

Newcastle United

More on Howe about the England job and whether it bothers him that he wasn't contacted: "England have to do what is right for them and only they will know the processes they have gone through and the decisions they have made and I am certainly not the type of person that is going to analyse that.

"For me it's about Newcastle and trying to win games and it's hard enough to do that if you are 100% focused and I will always remain that way to my work. If you drop your levels then the job becomes impossible and at no stage have I allowed myself to do that."

Newcastle United

Newcastle United manager Eddie Howe on Thomas Tuchel: "I've got a relationship with Thomas and I was lucky enough to go and see him work at Chelsea when I was out of work. What a brilliant guy. What a great person. What a great coach. I had two days with him and thought he was fascinating and I wish him well. I think he's a great appointment and I hope he leads England to many trophies.

"My preference would have been for an English coach but if you are going to go foreign then go for the best and Thomas is certainly that."

Newcastle United

In his Newcastle news conference Eddie Howe has just said he wasn't interviewed or contacted by the FA around the England job.

Thanks for the message Rich. Chelsea have completely surprised me this season and - like Opta earlier - I reckon they're probably the fourth-best team in the country.

But, as you say, the fixtures next up are tough. The Blues take on Liverpool, Manchester United, Newcastle and Arsenal before the next international break.

Six points from those games? Nine? Twelve?

Liverpool

Liverpool boss Arne Slot on Trent Alexander-Arnold: "Trent has been very good for us. He was and is important in our attacking part of the game, I also like the way he has defended until now in the game he's played for us. He made a step up I think, he's done well for us and England, if I'm correct in the tour matches he's played [for England], he got man of the match three times."

News conference one of 14 is nearly done.

Next up is Eddie Howe and Newcastle from 09:30 BST. Then it's Mikel Arteta and Arsenal's turn at 10:00 BST.

Liverpool

Liverpool boss Arne Slot on Conor Bradley: "I think it's going to be a bright future for him because he is a very good player and very good players is what we need here at Liverpool. He's done, last season especially, really well when he had to replace Trent and now Trent has played a lot but he is a very good player. Although he has big competition from Trent, normally very good players find their way on to the team and that is what I also expect of him, in the future at this club."

Liverpool

Liverpool boss Arne Slot on if Chelsea is their biggest challenge so far in the league: "If you look at the league table it is, I think Manchester United was a very good team, a top club in England that has spent a lot of money to make the team better again, same for Chelsea in this season. Chelsea does really well so if you look at the league table then they are the ones that might be our toughest opponent but it's not always about the league table sometimes, it's about the form on the day, it's about their game plan. We had some difficulties with Wolves as well, it is a challenge that's for sure."

So Liverpool's start to the season may have been against arguably easier opposition but the Reds' league run is about to increase in difficulty.

Their next five Premier League games are:

• Home against Chelsea on 20 October
• Away to Arsenal on 27 October
• Home to Brighton on 2 November
• Home to Aston Villa on 9 November
• Away to Southampton on 14 November

Opta have made a graphic for the next five games across the league and Liverpool's run is the sixth most difficult.

But, interestingly, potential title-rivals Arsenal have the fifth most difficult run coming up. Will we see the title race take an early twist in the next month or two?

Image source, Opta

Liverpool

Liverpool boss Arne Slot on the fixture list and: "If you judge your team only on a week then that is not fair. You have to judge as a team after this spell of games, not three of them, six, seven or eight, then we know better how we act and how we perform. If we play tough Champions League games and tough Premier League games, it's normal in everybody's season and we know how difficult it is. We've seen it ourselves, two years ago when we played Champions League, we saw it last season with Manchester United and the only ones that showed they could perform Champions League and in the league are Manchester City and Arsenal, the last two seasons. Now it's up to us."

That's from Joe by the way, just to give my colleagues an out in case he has a shocker at the weekend.

My take - Caoimhen Kelleher is the best back-up keeper in the Premier League.

Liverpool

Liverpool boss Arne Slot on team news: "We have quite some issues from players coming back from the national teams. We can only judge that perfectly today because today is the first time that they're all in and the first time that they're all training together again. So let's see after the session where everybody is. Mac Alister missed one game, Kostas missed out in the first game, against England. So I can name them all. We've got a few issues going on but let's wait and see where we are after today."

Liverpool

Liverpool boss Arne Slot on injuries: "Alisson is not with us for the upcoming weeks that's clear. That's a blow for him and for us, he did really well this season and has done so well for this club for so many years. Now the good thing is Caoimhin [Kelleher] did really well for us in previous years and it shows we have a good replacement."

Liverpool

Liverpool boss Arne Slot on contract extensions: "What was happening was that they were with their national teams. Trent [Alexander-Arnold] scored a fantastic free-kick like you probably saw. Same question, same answer. There will always be talks about our players and it's a good thing that you ask about it, It means they do well because if they played badly, then you wouldn't have asked. I cannot tell you anything about that at this moment."

Slot has just said that goalkeeper Alisson Becker is "not available for a couple of weeks".

Arne Slot has walked out to a room full of journalists. Full quotes to come from him shortly...

Liverpool

Image source, Getty Images

Liverpool full-back Conor Bradley has said coming up against Chelsea will always be a "special" fixture.

A youthful Reds side beat the Blues in last season's Carabao Cup final, while Chelsea were also the opposition against whom the Northern Ireland international scored his first Liverpool goal in January.

The 21-year-old said: "I didn't really expect to start because Trent [Alexander-Arnold] was back, but the gaffer [Jurgen Klopp] put trust in me to play. I used that in the game and went into it full of confidence.

"It was a surreal night scoring my first goal. I remember making a tackle and winning a free-kick and then the Kop was singing my name. I can't describe in words what that felt like.

"It's definitely one of the most special nights, my mates were over for it and I remember going back home after it and I was thinking 'what has just happened?'"