Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has said it will be "hard work" for his team to finish in the top four as he moved to played down expectations after Saturday's 4-1 win at Manchester City.
Liverpool are currently ninth, six points behind fourth-placed Arsenal, after claiming two wins and two draws in Klopp's first five league games.
The convincing nature of the victory over City has raised hopes that Liverpool can return to the Champions League next season, but Klopp warned that he cannot "promise" a top-four finish.
"It's only OK that you ask this if you ask it as well after we lose," he told reporters. "We can't change our targets just because we have won. We don't have to think about this.
"Our situation is difficult enough, but we played very well [against City].
"We have to be very careful. If something serious happens [to players] then we have a big problem. We have to work, that's all. Somebody asks us if we can go to the top then it's not my problem. I don't think that way.
"The money is in the Champions League but I can't promise it now. It's hard work. They changed the manager here.
"It wasn't because of the weather and it wasn't a problem with Brendan Rodgers because he is a brilliant manager, but they had to change something. Only two weeks ago we lost to [Crystal] Palace. I can't say that we are good enough but if you want to write it you can."
Klopp has won just one game at Anfield so far -- the 1-0 Capital One Cup success against Bournemouth -- and the former Borussia Dortmund coach now hopes to see an improvement in home performances.
"I would love to win a game like this at Anfield," he said. "That's the next challenge. We have Swansea coming but I don't know that much about them yet. We lost to Palace so we have to find a solution and we will."
He said he had been working hard to instil confidence in the players since taking charge on Oct. 8.
"If you are stuck in the forest and it's dark and you are afraid and someone tells you not to be then it doesn't work," he said. "It's your own mind. Only you can affect that.
"We need the confidence in ourselves -- we cannot switch the lamp on and off, on and off. So it's very good against City but we have to work [more]. We are not satisfied. At 3-1 the game could have changed. They went 4-4-2 in the second half and it was difficult."
Liverpool defender Martin Skrtel, who scored Liverpool's fourth against City, said Klopp had made a major impact at the club already.
"You can see what a difference he has made," Skrtel told the Liverpool Echo. "He's very good tactically and he gives players belief. You see his emotion on the touchline.
"He's a winner. He shows that every day in training and when it comes to the games.
"We wants us all to be the same -- to be fighting for the team and fighting for the club and that's what we're all doing.
"It's not easy to come here and play like that against City because they have so many great players, but I think we showed on the pitch what we are able to do and how good we can be. The team performance was top class and now we need to carry on in this way."