Sturridge welcomes return of Suarez

Liverpool forward Daniel Sturridge has refused to get carried away by their strong start to the English Premier League season.

The Reds moved up to second in the standings after a 3-1 win at managerless Sunderland, with Sturridge opening the scoring before two goals from Luis Suarez – either side of Emanuele Giaccherini's effort for the Black Cats – sealing victory.

It was the Merseysiders’ fourth win in six league matches, but Sturridge played down their hopes of challenging for the title.

“It’s early days, take every day as it comes. Don’t worry about the future, worry about the here and now,” he said.

“I don’t think we played as well as we could have in the first half, even though we were 2-0 up, but it was very difficult in the second half.

“We took our foot off the pedal a little bit and once they scored a goal it got a bit more difficult for us but we held on in the end.

“We defended well towards the end of the game and then got a late goal, which killed it off.”

Suarez netted a brace on his first Premier League outing since his 10-game ban and Sturridge believes the Uruguayan’s presence can only help Liverpool this season.

“It’s great to have him back in, he gives us options and he’s one of the best forwards in the league. We form a good partnership,” said the former Manchester City and Chelsea striker.

Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers was delighted to have Suarez back in the fold.

“He’s getting the reward for his hard work over the period that he was off. I thought he was excellent the other night at Old Trafford,” said Rodgers. “Him and Daniel up front are a real, real handful. They combined very well.

“On the back of a really tough game where we played well during the week, today was always going to be physically demanding game for us,” he added. “The work we put into it was exceptional and to get the three goals and maybe a few more chances to score a few more . . . and as a team we worked really, really hard.”