Sadio Mane issues Liverpool rallying cry and calls on Reds to be "great champions"

Sadio Mane has called on Liverpool to prove they are "great champions" over the next week as the Reds look to rally from their first dip in form this season.

Liverpool slipped to a third defeat in their last four games in the FA Cup fifth round clash at Chelsea on Wednesday, with all of those losses coming in three different competitions.

The Reds remain 22 points clear at the top of the Premier League though, with fans growing increasingly excited at the likelihood that the club's 30-year top-flight title drought will come to an end over the coming weeks.

Liverpool welcome Bournemouth to Anfield on Saturday lunchtime looking to record one of the four more wins they need to secure the title, before hosting Atletico Madrid in the second leg of the Champions League's last-16 next Wednesday, as they bid to overturn a 1-0 deficit.

Mane started as Liverpool lost 2-0 at Chelsea (Image: NurPhoto/PA Images)

“The best team won today,” Mane told talkSPORT after the defeat at Chelsea.

“In the first half we played well and created many chances but we just didn’t score, and Chelsea had a few chances and scored two goals, so game over.

“We created enough chances to win, but we need to be more clinical in front of the goal and that was not the case. But that’s a part of football.