Paul Eaton 03 November 2005 John Arne Riise is confident Liverpool will be competing at the top end of the Premiership table before too long. The Reds may be languishing in 13th place at the moment, but Riise has seen enough over the last couple of games to convince him the players are in the mood to string a winning run together - starting at Aston Villa this weekend.
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He told Liverpoolfc.tv: "We are very confident at the moment. We know what happened at Fulham in our last away game was just a blip and since then we have turned in two good performances and won two important games.
"We know what we're capable of and I'm confident we'll soon start climbing the table. Chelsea may be a number of points clear at the moment, but behind them there's a scramble for places and we want to be in amongst them competing towards the top.
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"A lot of teams have surprised me this season. Wigan, Charlton and Man City have all done well to get so high in the league, but we're capable of putting some wins together and joining them. We just need to find some consistency now. We don't want to be winning one week and losing the next. We want to put a run of wins together so we can climb the table.
"Our next game is at Villa and we know that's a very big game for us. I think the first 20 minutes are going to be important. They'll be up for the game as well and will give us a tough time, but if we can get the first goal then we can control the match. If they score first then we'll have to go after them. Playing against the European champions is always a big thing for any club and so we know we'll have to work hard to beat Villa."
Liverpool will be boosted ahead of the game by the fact that Fernando Morientes is back on scoring form following his excellent strike against Anderlecht in midweek.
Riise was delighted to see the Reds' striker back among the goals and he's pleased that different players are now appearing on the scoresheet.
He added: "It's important that we share the goals around. Djibril has been on fire of late, Morientes will take confidence from hisgoal and the midfielders have also scored a few this season.
"It's no surprise to any of us that Morientes scored in midweek. We all feel for whichever players are getting a bit of stick in the papers and that's why we were so pleased to see him score such a good goal.
"Against West Ham he played well but couldn't get a goal and against Anderlecht he was excellent again and capped that off with a good strike. He has nothing to prove to anyone here. We all know he's a top player and a great goalscorer. Hopefully the goal against Anderlecht will set him off on a run now."
Jay -- LIVERPOOL FC - KINGS OF EUROPE MANCHE$TER BUCCANEERS & BLUEpooE - KINGS OF COMEDY
