For the first time this season, Liverpool needs to show its resilience as it continues its bid for at least one trophy this season.
Jurgen Klopp's side lost for the first time in the Premier League over the weekend when it was beaten 3-0 by relegation-threatened Watford.
Klopp's and his men sit 22 points clear at the top of the table and well on course for a first league title since 1990, but the pressure is on to bounce back immediately as they bid for a place in the FA Cup quarterfinals.
Liverpool travels to Chelsea on Tuesday night, chasing silverware on three fronts but with Klopp facing a selection dilemma as he balances his side's priorities.
Youngster Curtis Jones could come into the midfield having scored the winner against Everton, while Klopp will check on defender Joe Gomez, who missed the defeat at Watford.
Fullback Andy Robertson said Liverpool owes the fans a reaction.
"It's a performance that has not been expected for a number of years by the fans, and we can only apologize for this performance," he said.
"It's up to us to bounce back. It's up to us to now get back to that because that's the only way we're going to win games and get closer to our targets."
Klopp said Chelsea was the perfect opportunity to get back to winning ways.
"We feel the defeat, really, it's absolutely exactly the opposite of what we wanted to have," he said.
"We have to feel that and now we have the chance to show a reaction again and that's what we will do."
The visit of Liverpool is likely to be too soon for Tammy Abraham to return from injury for Chelsea, meaning Olivier Giroud may start up front.
Invincible no more
Liverpool's dream run was demolished in the most unlikely fashion by strugglers Watford on Saturday in what must be considered the most extraordinary reverse of the entire Premier League season.
On the evening when the current European champion was expected to complete the best sequence in the history of English football's top-flight with a 19th straight league victory, it was instead hammered 3-0 by the team lying one from the bottom.
Earlier, Chelsea earned a late 2-2 draw at Bournemouth with two goals from its predatory defender Marcos Alonso and West Ham United moved out of the drop zone with a 3-1 win over Southampton after protests outside the London Stadium.
But nothing could compare with the drama of the late match as Watford's Senegalese winger Ismaila Sarr scored twice and set up a third for his captain Troy Deeney in a second-half shredding of Liverpool's aura of domestic invincibility.
Liverpool's first league defeat in its 28th match this season also meant the end of a 44-game unbeaten streak stretching back to January 2019, as well as killing off its dreams of going an entire English top-flight campaign without a loss like Arsenal and Preston North End.
Yet while recognizing his team's streak had been bound to be dismantled some time, Klopp reflected that he was not really disappointed by the end of the pursuit of some potentially unreal records.
"I see it rather positive because from now on we can play free football again. We don't have to defend or try to get a record, we can just try to win football games again and that is what we will do," Klopp said.
"Nothing to do with tiredness," he said. "It's not easy to explain, but it should not be now the biggest sensation in world football that it happened."
